A type of perennial flowering plants. Rhizomes with oblong cones sitting on short legs. The stem is simple, single-flowered, less often two-flowered, glabrous, 10-50 cm high. The leaves are twice-thrice-triplicate or triplicate-pinnate, dissected into linear or linear-filamentous, whole-edged lobes, 1-2 mm wide, hanging and diverging at the edges. The flowers are large, up to 8 cm in diameter, bright red or dark purple; there are eight to ten petals, purple threads, yellow anthers. Fruits from two or three, less often four or five straight or slightly bent, rejected leaflets. The seeds are elongated-rounded, brown-black, shiny.