Perennial, 15-40 (-50) cm tall herb, with radical leaves and usually 2, opposite cauline leaves below the inflorescence; rootstock slender tuberous, fusiform, at the end of a narrow portion of underground stem which often bears distant scale leaves; stem leafless below but at the base covered with scale leaves and sheathing, withered leaf bases with few radical leaves; Radical leaves long petioled, 10-20 cm long, ternate, bipinnatisect with 1-2 pairs of lateral pinnae and a terminal one; pinnae alike, short petioluled, 15-30 mm in diam, ternately deeply dissected with 3 distinct, almost sessile pinnules; each pinnule again deeply dissected into ± 3 ultimate segments or lobules; lobules oblong or narrowly obovate-oblong, 10-20 mm long, 2-4 mm broad, apex acute to subrounded usually minutrely mucronate, ±3-veined on the ventral surface; petiole usually 2-3 times as long as the lamina of leaf. Cauline leaves usually 2, opposite, a little below the inflorescence, or above the middle of the stem, sessile or subsessile, very similar to a pinna of the radical leaf, very rarely developing a shoot in its axil. Racemes 15-30-flowered, 3-10 cm long, bracteate, much exceeding the radical leaves; bracts usually linear-lanceolate with a tapering apex, entire, rarely the lower disected, (7-) 10-20 (-25) mm long, 2-4 (-6) mm broad. Flowers 12-18 mm long, yellow with reddish-brown streaks or purplish tips, with spur about half as long and slightly hooked, cylindrical. Sepal obscure. Upper petal vaulted, slightly winged at the back, acute; lower petal similarly winged, somewhat gibbous at base, slightly exceeding the other petals. Pedicels slightly shorter than bracts, deflexed in fruit. Capsules oblong, 12-18 (-20) mm long, 2.5-3.5 mm broad, somewhat narrowed below; style 3-4 mm long with curved dilated stigma; seeds 5-8, sub-biseriate to biseriate, c. 2 mm in diam., shining black.
Fl.Per.: June-Aug.
Type: Kashmir, Deotsu, Falconer (K).
Distribution: W. Tibet and Kashmir.
A fairly constant species, but the last cited specimen above has an intermediate look between this species and Corydalis govaniana Wall., by having 1-2 pairs of lateral pinnae on the somewhat elongated radical leaves and much dissected to entire bracts and slightly longer fruits. However, 2 cauline leaves above the middle of stem and flowers are distinctive.
