Distribution: Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Yukon Territory to California, east to the northern Great Plains, and Great Lakes regions.

Habitat: Prairies, balds, and moister places in the sagebrush plains, from the foothills to subalpine ridges.

Flowers: April-August

Origin: Native

Growth Duration: Perennial

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Self-pollination, bees, flies

Herbaceous perennial from thick, scaly rhizomes, forming clumps 3 dm. or more broad, with flowering stems up to 3 dm. tall.

Leaves mostly basal, somewhat hairy and grayish, the blades 5-15 cm. long, oblong to obovate, unevenly pinnate to pinnatifid, the segments deeply cleft into linear or oblong divisions, or cleft less than half way and again 2- to 3-toothed.; cauline leaves 2, opposite, much reduced, stipulate, attached about mid-stem.

Flowers few in a terminal, open cluster; calyx cup-shaped, reddish-purple, 4-5 mm. long, the 5 lobes triangular, upright, 8-12 mm. long, the 5 bracteoles somewhat spreading, linear or 2-3 cleft; petals 5, light yellow to strongly pinkish-tinged, convergent, elliptic to elliptic-ovate, somewhat longer to much shorter than the bracteoles; stamens and styles numerous.

Achenes pear-shaped, 3 mm. long, the lower part of the persistent style 3-5 cm. long, strongly plumose, purplish, the terminal section glabrous, 3-6 mm. long.