Plant 20-60 cm high, simple or branched in the upper parts, tetrorse-strigose below, crisp-pubescent above, some hairs with glands, swollen at base. Leaves subglabrous, lower most soon withering, upper ones sessile, all leaves multifid, crowded, segments linear to linear-lanceolate, 1-2.5 mm wide, ciliolate. Racemes dense at anthesis, becoming lax later. Lower bracts divided, upper ones linear, entire, 5-20 mm long. Pedicels 5-40 mm. Bracteoles near the summit. Flowers dark purple, pink or white. Sepals 10-12 mm, rounded-ovate to elliptic or slightly narrower, clawed, ± pubescent. Spur 10 mm long. Petal 3-lobed, 8-10 mm long, of the same colour as sepals, central lobe ovate to oblong-ovate, bilobed, lateral lobes slightly shorter, rounded. Filaments widened near the base, with gland-tipped hairs. Follicle strigose, 14-22 mm, oblong-cylindric with some gland tipped hairs. Style 1.5-2 mm. Seeds 1.2-2 mm, obpyramidal, with transverse rows of scales.

Type: Not indicated. Described from cultivated material.

Distribution: Widely distributed from the Mediterranean, Turkey, Caucasus, S. Siberia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.