Shrubs small, erect. Stems 30--100 cm; branches shallowly 4- or 5-grooved, appressed puberulous. Leaves simple; petiole 1.5--4(--7) mm; leaf blade ovate or lanceolate in outline, pinnatipartite or pinnatisect, sometimes pinnatilobed, 0.5--5 × 0.3--3 cm, leathery, both surfaces sparsely puberulous or subglabrous, base cuneate or subtruncate; lobes in 1--3(or 4) pairs, undivided and linear or subrhombic and unequally 2- or 3-lobulate, 4--15 mm, apex acute; lobules (if present) ovate, triangular, or linear; midvein abaxially slightly prominent or flat, inconspicuous. Cymes terminal, 1--3(--7)-flowered; peduncle 1--2 cm; bracts leaflike. Flowers 1.2--2.2 cm in diam.; pedicel 0.5--1.3 cm, densely puberulous. Sepals 4, yellow, ascending, oblong or long elliptic, 0.8--1.6 × 0.4--0.85 cm, abaxially puberulous or glabrous, adaxially glabrous, margin narrowly winglike, velutinous on inner line, apex obtuse. Stamens 6--8 mm, glabrous; anthers narrowly oblong, 2.2--3 mm, apex obtuse or indistinctly minutely apiculate. Ovaries densely pubescent; style 5--7 mm, densely villous. Achenes compressed, elliptic, 3--4 × 2.2--2.5 mm, densely pubescent; persistent style ca. 2 cm, plumose. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Aug--Sep.

* Dry or gravelly slopes; 1200--3200 m. Gansu, SW Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi.