Herbs perennial. Roots subequally thick. Stems 28--95 cm, hirsute below, strigose above, branched. Basal and lower stem leaves with petiole 7--30 cm, hirsute; blade ternate, occasionally biternate, or 3-partite, pentagonal in outline, 2.6--5 × 2.6--7 cm, papery, strigose, base cordate, leaflets petiolulate; central leaflet rhombic-ovate or ovate, base broadly cuneate or rounded, margin 3-partite or 3-lobed, denticulate; lateral leaflets obliquely broadly ovate, unequally 2- or 3-cleft. Upper stem leaves smaller, shortly petiolate. Compound monochasium terminal, 4- to many flowered; bracts leaflike. Flowers ca. 0.9 cm in diam. Pedicel 0.5--3 cm, strigose. Receptacle hirtellous. Sepals 5, reflexed, elliptic-ovate, 3.5--4 mm, abaxially strigose. Petals 5, obovate, 4--10 mm, nectary pit covered by a scale, apex rounded. Stamens numerous; anthers oblong. Aggregate fruit subglobose, 5--8 mm in diam.; carpels numerous. Achene flat, obliquely obovate, 2--2.8 × 1.8--2 mm, glabrous, narrowly marginate; style persistent, narrowly triangular or subulate, 0.7--1.2 mm, hooked at apex. Fl. Apr--Oct, fr. Apr--Nov.

By streams, forests, grassy slopes; 100--2500 m. Fujian, N Guangdong, N and E Guangxi, Guizhou, SW Hubei, Hunan, S Jiangxi, W and SE Sichuan, Taiwan, S and E Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea].