Plants 20--60 cm tall, pubescent. Roots fibrous. Stems branched, erect, smooth. Leaves both basal and cauline; stipules to 6 mm, membranous, margin fimbriate, apex broadly acuminate; petiole 1.5--8 cm; leaf blade 2- or 3-ternate; petiolule 4--12 mm; leaflet blade 1.3--3 × 1.5--4 cm, papery to herbaceous, base rounded to cuneate-rounded, margin 3-lobed; lobes crenate-toothed, apex rounded to acute; veins abaxially prominent, adaxially inconspicuous. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, monochasial, several flowered. Bracts linear, 2--3 mm. Pedicel 7--15(--30) mm. Sepals 4, early deciduous, whitish green, oblong, ovate, or elliptic, 3--4 mm. Stamens many; filament whitish, 3--4 mm, apex strongly dilated, slightly narrower than or as broad as anther; anther ca. 1 mm, apex mucronate. Carpels 10--50; style circinate or hooked, 0.5--1.3 mm; stigma purple, conspicuous. Achenes sessile; body oblong-ovoid, 1--3 mm; veins 4--6, stout. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Aug--Sep.

This species is similar to Thalictrum scabrifolium, but differs in having smaller leaflets and stamens sometimes mucronate at the apex.

* Forests; ca. 2000 m. Yunnan.