Perennial; stems erect, or seldom climbing or twining and sprawling; leaves 2-(3-) pinnate with 7-11 leaflets; leaflets thin, glabrous, usually greater than 1.5 cm wide and less than 2.5 times as long as wide, not prominently reticulate, appearing palmately lobed, but sometimes pinnately lobed, with 2-5 mostly ovate lobes; flowers terminal, solitary, urn- or bell-shaped; sepals petaloid, purple, often with white woolly margins, thick, lanceolate, 1.5-3.0 cm long, petals absent, mature styles 3.5-5.0 cm long, plumose. Flowers May and June.