Perennial, 50-100 cm tall, glabrous, erect herb. Branches divaricate, striate, basal shoots spreading, upper ones ascending. Leaves pinnately bifoliolate, petiole 12-15(-20) mm long, somewhat flattened; stipules ovate-elliptic, 5-10 mm long; leaflets obovate-oblong, 15-26 mm long, 10-18 mm broad, oblique at the base, obtuse or retuse at the apex. Flowers yellowish, c. 10 mm across; pedicels spreading, c. 6-8 mm long. Sepals 5, oblong or somewhat ovate-elliptic, 6-7 mm long, 3.5-4.5 mm broad, obtuse, margin membranous. Petals 5, obovate, as long and broad as sepals, apex obtuse or slightly retuse, orange red at the base. Stamens with 10-12 mm long filaments, scales linear-oblong, lacerate, c. 5 mm long, orange-red, papillate. Carpels 5; ovary c. 4 mm long, 5-angled, 5-loculed, locules multiovulate; style as long as ovary. Capsule oblong-cylindric, becoming pendulous, 20-35 mm long, 4-6 mm broad, glabrous. Seeds oblong, compressed, c. 3 mm long, tuberculate, shining.

Fl. Per.: May-September.

Type: Herb. Linn. 544.1 (LINN).

Distribution: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Romania, Russia, Arabia, North Africa and naturalized in Spain, France and Sardinia.