Herbs, perennial, 15-40 cm tall, yellow lactiferous, sparsely pubescent, glabrous in age. Rootstock oblique, 2-5 cm, white, at fruiting orange, fleshy, with brown membranous scales; scales orbicular, 4-8 mm in diam. Stems erect, green to red or purple, simple, herbaceous, striate, glabrous. Basal leaves few, long petiolate; blade virescent abaxially, green adaxially, 10-15(-20) cm, pinnatisect; lobes 2 or 3 pairs, broadly lanceolate-rhombic, obovate-rhombic, or nearly elliptic, 3-7(-10) × 1-5 cm, both surfaces glabrous, base cuneate, margin irregularly crenate or biserrate, sometimes parted or incised, or pinnatipartite and lobes irregularly incised again, apex acuminate. Cauline leaves usually 2, rarely 3. Inflorescences terminal, sometimes axillary, 1- or 2(or 3)-flowered. Pedicel erect, tenuous, 3.5-7 cm. Flower buds oval, 8-10 mm, glabrous or sparsely hairy. Sepals ovate, 1-1.5 cm, scattered floccose or glabrous abaxially, imbricate in bud. Petals obovate or suborbicular, 1.5-2 cm, imbricate in bud, suddenly inflated at flowering, basally shortly clawed. Stamens yellow, ca. 6 mm; anthers orbicular or oblong. Ovary ca. 7 mm; styles very short; stigmas 2-lobed. Capsule 5-8 cm × ca. 3 mm, glabrous, 2-valvate, with 1 persistent style to 1 cm. Seeds ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm. Fl. Apr-Jul, fr. May-Aug. 2n = 24.

Forest understories, forest margins, ditch sides, shaded habitats; 300-2400 m. Anhui, Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Russia (E Siberia)].