Perennial herb to 8 cm tall; stems and rootstocks numerous, short, and almost matted, appearing caespitose; leaves digitately 5-foliate; leaflets divided terminally into three lobes; leaflet bases narrowly cuneate; midvein of leaflets raised on lower surface; lateral veins seen as faint lines on lower surface and impressed to some degree on upper surface; leaflets with ciliate margins; cilia on leaf margins up to 2.0 mm long, remote; petioles to 35 mm long, often bearing scattered cilia; largest leaflets to 20 mm long; flowering stems occasionally branched from lower of usually two nodes; flowers solitary at end of peduncle 10-35 mm long; peduncles and lower parts of flowering stem usually villous; petals 5, yellow, about 7 mm long; calyx villous; outer series of 5 bractlets narrowly oblong and obtuse, sparsely long-villous, about 3 mm long, 1 mm wide, with thin reddish margins; sepals 4-4.5 mm long, sparsely long-villous, broad at base, acute at tip; margins scarious in basal 1/3 of each sepal, thin and reddish in distal 2/3; styles terminal. Flowers in June and July.