Shrubs small, erect. Stems to 1 m; branches shallowly 4- or 5-grooved, puberulous, glabrescent. Leaves simple; petiole 0.3--1.2 cm; leaf blade lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate, or narrowly rhombic-ovate, undivided, with 1 lobule on each side near base, or pinnatilobed, 1.5--4.5 × 0.5--2.2(--3) cm, leathery or subleathery, both surfaces subglabrous or sparsely or densely puberulous, base cuneate or broadly so, margin few dentate or entire; midvein abaxially slightly prominent, lateral basal veins inconspicuous. Cymes terminal, 1--5-flowered; peduncle 0.7--2 cm; bracts leaflike. Flowers 1.8--3.5 cm in diam.; pedicel 0.4--1.8 cm, puberulous. Sepals 4, yellow, ascending, elliptic-ovate or long elliptic, 1--2.4 × 0.5--1.2 cm, abaxially subglabrous or sparsely puberulous, adaxially glabrous, margin sometimes velutinous. Stamens 8--13 mm, glabrous; anthers narrowly oblong, 2.5--4 mm, apex obtuse. Ovaries pubescent; style 7--11 mm, densely villous Achenes compressed, ovate or narrowly elliptic, 5--6 × 2.8--3.5 mm, pubescent; persistent style ca. 2.5 cm, plumose. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Oct.

Scrub, dry and grassy slopes, grasslands, sandy places, cliffs; 800--1800 m. SE Gansu, N Hebei, NC and SW Nei Mongol, SE and W Ningxia, N Shaanxi, Shanxi [Mongolia].