Annual 4-40 cm, erect or straggling, pubescent-glandular or eglandular. Leaves 20-50 x 8-27 mm, pinnatisect, pubescent-glandular; segments pinnati-partite-sect into small acute lobes. Stipules broad lanceolate-ovate, sometimes connate, 2.5-5 mm long, ciliate, pubescent, scarious. Peduncles 1.5-6.5 cm long, 2-8-flowered, reflexed in fruit, patent-glandular. Bracts connate, ovate, acute, ciliate. Sepals 3-4 mm long, up to 6 mm in fruit, ovate-lanceolate, glandular-pubescent, apiculate, margin membranous. Petals scarcely exceeding sepals, obovate, reddish-purple, cuneate, claw ciliate, apex 1-2-setose. Filaments (of functional stamens) ± 2.5 mm long, base dilated, sparsely pubescent; staminodes shorter, lanceolate, glabrous. Beak 2.5-3.5 mm long, appressed pubescent. Mericarps 5.5 mm long, with bristle-like suberect yellow hairs, faintly furrowed below the pits.

Fl. Per.: March-April.

Type: Described from Europe, Herb. cliff. (BM); Herb., Linn. 858/43 (LINN).

Distribution: Europe, N. Africa, S.W. Asia, Arabia, Caucasus, Siberia, C. Asia.

A plant of variable size and pubescence. Common in hills from 700-2400 m. According to Davis (Fl. Turk. 2:485) differs from the subsp. bipinnatum in having a faint furrow below the pit and the acute lobes of the leaves.