Aerial shoots 5-30(-35) cm, from short caudices on rhizomes, rhizomes primarily horizontal. Basal leaves 1-5(-7), ternate; petiole 1-10 cm; terminal leaflet sessile, obtriangular, (0.5-)0.7-1.8(-2.2) × 0.5-1.3 cm, base cuneate, margins crenate to broadly serrate on distal 1/3, apex obtuse to truncate, surfaces villous to nearly glabrous; lateral leaflets usually 1×-lobed or -parted; ultimate lobes 4-15 mm wide. Inflorescences 1-flowered; peduncle villous; involucral bracts 2-3, 1-tiered, simple, ± similar to terminal leaflets of basal leaves, obtriangular, 3-cleft, 0.5-2.5 cm, bases distinct, cuneate, margins crenate to broadly serrate, surfaces villous to nearly glabrous; segments 3, oblanceolate to obovate; lateral segments unlobed, 2-8 mm wide. Flowers: sepals 4-7, white or tinged blue or abaxially white, proximally blue, and adaxially white, broadly elliptic to ovate, (7-)8-20 × 4-9 mm, abaxially hairy, adaxially glabrous; stamens 70-80. Heads of achenes spheric; pedicel 4-18 cm. Achenes: body obovoid, 2-2.5 × ca. 1 mm, not winged, densely woolly; beak straight, 1-2.5 mm, glabrous. 2 n =16. Flowering spring-summer (May-Aug). Streamsides, meadows, rocky slopes; 0-3800m; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld., N.W.T., Ont., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Colo., Idaho, Mont., Oreg., Utah, Wash., Wyo.; Asia.