Herbs perennial, to 1.5 m tall. Rootstock branched, robust, with many long, slender roots. Stems angular, glabrous. Radical leaves: stipules brown, membranous, abaxially glabrous; petiole glabrous; leaf blade with 7–9 pairs of leaflets; leaflets petiolulate, green on both surfaces, fasciated or fasciated lanceolate, 5–7 × 1.5–1.7 cm, both surfaces glabrous, base subcordate to obliquely truncate or rounded, margin acutely incised serrate, apex rounded to acute; cauline leaves: stipules green, falcate, herbaceous, margin incised serrate; leaf blade resembling that of radical leaves but leaflets fewer and narrower higher up stem. Inflorescences usually nodding, spicate, long cylindric, 2–7 × 0.5–0.8 cm; peduncle subglabrous; bracts lanceolate, shorter than sepals, abaxially and at margin densely hairy. Sepals red, whitish red, or white, long elliptic, abaxially glabrous. Stamens 4; filaments compressed-dilated, 0.5–2 × as long as sepals, apex narrower than or nearly as broad as anther. Ovary glabrous or pubescent near base; stigma dilated, discoidal. Fruiting hypanthium longitudinally 4-ribbed, glabrous. Fl. and fr. Jul–Sep.

Forests, forest margins, meadows, grassy mountain slopes, damp places; 200--1700 m. Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia].