Perennial herb, 0.6-1 m tall. Rootstock stout, 1-1.5 cm in diameter, gray-brown, with numerous remaining withered sheath fibers from the previous year; root conical, slender at the end, often forked. Stem cylindrical, glabrous below, branches above mostly with short hairs, pith solid. Basal leaves with long petioles, petiole 5-15 cm long, base with ovate-lanceolate leaf sheaths; leaf blade outline broadly ovate or triangular-ovate, bipinnately to tripinnately ternate, first-order pinnae petiolate, petiole 3.5-6 cm long, ultimate lobes rhombic-obovate, apex acuminate, base cuneate to truncate, sessile or shortly petiolate, margin irregularly 3-4 coarsely or rounded serrate, sometimes lower teeth shallowly or deeply lobed, 1.5-6 cm long, 1.2-4 cm wide, lower surface veins prominently raised, both surfaces glabrous, or sometimes with sparse short hairs on veins and margins of the lower surface; lower stem leaves shortly petiolate, blade shape similar to basal leaves; upper stem leaves sessile, leaf sheath slightly broad, margin membranous, blade ternately divided, lobes narrow, base cuneate, the middle one decurrent at the base.