Herbs annual or biennial. Roots slender, with sparse lateral rootlets. Flowering stems spreading, ascending, or erect, dichotomously branched, 20–50 cm tall, together with petioles pilose or glabrescent. Radical leaves 4–15 cm including petiole; stipules brown, membranous, abaxially pilose or glabrescent; leaf blade 3-foliolate or pinnate with 2–5 pairs of leaflets; leaflets alternate or opposite, sessile, or terminal leaflet shortly petiolulate or subsessile, both surfaces green, oblong or obovate-oblong, 1–2.5 × 0.5–1.5 cm, both surfaces pilose or glabrescent, base cuneate or broadly so, often decurrent and adnate to rachis in apical 1 or 2 pairs of leaflets, margin obtusely serrate, incised serrate, or 2- or 3-parted, apex obtuse or acute; cauline leaves resembling radical ones but pairs of leaflets fewer higher up stem; stipules green, herbaceous, margin entire, serrate, or parted. Inflorescence terminal, corymbose-cymose, with axillary flowers on lower part of flowering stem. Flowers 6–8 mm in diam.; pedicel 0.8–1.5 cm, densely pubescent. Sepals triangular-ovate, apex acute; epicalyx segments oblong-elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, nearly equaling or slightly longer than sepals, apex acute. Petals yellow, obovate, slightly shorter than sepals, apex emarginate. Style subterminal, base thickened, papillate; stigma dilated. Achenes cylindric, rugose, apex acute. Fl. and fr. Mar–Oct.

Meadows, wet places on mountain slopes, sandy river banks, field margins, saline deserts; 100--2000 m. Anhui, Gansu, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [widespread in N hemisphere and subtropical regions].