Herbs perennial. Roots robust, terete, woody. Flowering stems erect, 10–30 cm tall, sparsely pilose, in upper part sometimes mixed with glandular hairs. Radical leaves 5–15 cm including petiole; stipules brown, membranous, abaxially villous; petiole sparsely pilose; leaf blade pinnate with 2–4 pairs of leaflets, sometimes also 3-foliolate; basal pair usually small; leaflets sessile, sometimes apical pair shortly petiolulate, abaxially gray or grayish green, adaxially green or dark green, elliptic, oblong-elliptic, or elliptic-ovate, 1–4 × 0.5–1.5 cm, subleathery, abaxially densely villous, appressed villous on veins, or sparsely pilose or glabrescent, adaxially markedly bullate or not, prominently or inconspicuously reticulate veined, appressed pilose, sparsely pilose, or glabrescent, base cuneate or broadly so, margin acutely and usually roughly serrate, teeth usually triangular-ovate, apex obtuse or acute; cauline leaves 2 or 3; stipules green, ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, herbaceous, margin 1–3-dentate, rarely entire; leaf blade with 1–3 pairs of leaflets. Inflorescence terminal, laxly corymbiform or cymose. Flowers 8–12 mm in diam.; pedicel 5–10 mm, densely villous and glandular hairy. Sepals triangular-ovate, apex caudate; epicalyx segments usually purplish abaxially, linear-lanceolate, nearly equaling sepals, sparsely pilose, apex acute. Petals yellow, obovate-oblong, 0.5–1 × as long as sepals, apex rounded. Ovary densely villous at hilum; style subterminal, filiform; stigma not dilated. Achenes rugose at maturity, inconspicuously so, or smooth, sometimes villous around hilum. Fl. and fr. May–Sep.

Forests, thickets, meadows, ravines, gravels, rock crevices; 200--2700 m. Anhui, Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Jilin, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan [Japan, Korea, Russia].