Rootstock stout, terete. Flowering stems to 40 cm tall, pubescent. Radical leaves 12–24 cm including petiole; stipules green, ovate-lanceolate, herbaceous, margin entire; petiole 1–4 cm, pubescent or pilose, rarely glabrescent; leaf blade broadly linear in outline, interrupted or compacted pinnate, with 9–13 pairs of leaflets, both surfaces pilose or glabrescent; leaflets semiorbicular, 4–25 × 3–22 mm, proximal ones smaller, base broadly cuneate, mostly adnate to axis, margin irregularly crenate and cilliate, apex rounded; cauline leaves reduced and bractlike, oblong-lanceolate, parted. Inflorescence terminal, cymose, 2–6-flowered. Flowers 2.8–3.5 cm in diam.; pedicel pubescent. Sepals green, ovate-triangular, apex acute; epicalyx segments linear-lanceolate, minute, ca. 1/2 as long as sepals, abaxially pubescent. Petals yellow, broadly obovate, ca. 2 × as long as sepals, glabrous, apex emarginate. Ovary glabrous, sparsely pilose only near apex, or densely hirsute, apically tapered into style; style terminal, not twisted, glabrous or sparsely pilose at base; stigma minute. Achenes ovoid; style persistent. Fl. and fr. Jun–Aug.

Alpine meadows; 3500--5400 m. Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, Kashmir, Nepal, Sikkim].