Plants ca. 18 cm tall, glabrous. Stems branched. Leaves basal; petiole ca. 7 cm; leaf blade 3-ternate, ca. 5 cm; petiolule short; leaflet blade broadly ovate, broadly obovate, or orbicular, 1--1.4 × 1--1.6 cm, herbaceous, base rounded or subcordate, apex 3-lobed; veins raised abaxially, flat adaxially. Cauline leaves 2, 1.7--2 cm, shortly petiolate; leaf blade 1- or 2-ternate. Inflorescence monochasial, few flowered. Pedicel 2--5 mm, to ca. 12 mm in fruit. Carpels 5; style ca. 0.8 mm. Achene stipe ca. 2 mm; body ellipsoid, laterally compressed, ca. 3.5 × 1.2 mm; veins ca. 3, weak. Fl. Apr--Jun.

This species is similar to Thalictrum urbainii, which differs in having leathery leaflets; it also is similar to T. umbricola, which differs in having styles long and circinate and stigmas linear, ca. 0.8 mm.

Steep damp slopes; ca. 1600 m. Hainan [Philippines].