Plants 15–30 cm, perennial. Rootstock, branched, thickened and woody at apex. Stems many, slender, few-branched above, base densely clothed with remnant fibrous sheaths. Leaves all linear, 7–16 × 0.1–0.3 cm, 3–5-nerved, base slightly tapering into a short petiole, apex mucronate. Cauline leaves sessile, slightly clasping. Umbels 1–2 cm across; bracts 1–3, or absent, 1–3 × ca. 1 mm; rays 4–7, 4–15 mm; bracteoles 5, lanceolate, 1–3 × 0.5–0.7 mm, shorter than flowers; umbellules 3–6 mm across, 7–13-flowered; pedicels 0.7–1.3 mm. Petals bright yellow, tip shallowly 2-lobed. Stylopodium low-conic, dark yellow. Fruit broadly ovoid, bluish-brown, 2.5–3 × ca. 2 mm; ribs prominent; vittae 3 in each furrow, 2–4 on commissure, very small, obscure when mature. Fl. and fr. Jul–Sep.

The roots of at least var. bicaule are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Forest margins, gravelly or sunny mountain slopes, dry stony grasslands; 600–1600 m. Hebei, N Heilongjiang, Nei Mongol, N Shaanxi, N Shanxi [Afghanistan, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia].