Biennial or triennial, monocarpic herb 10–40 cm high, with stout taproot and umbellately branching stems when older. Leaves basal when young, becoming cauline, pinnate, lamina ovate in outline, 1.5–8 cm long, 0.7–3.5 cm wide; leaflets 7–17, lanceolate, velvety hairy (rarely sparsely so), hairs white; petiole 2–7 cm long, leaf-sheath pubescent, thin. Scape erect, stout, with soft, spreading hairs; peduncles to c. 35 mm in fruit, usually only slightly exceeding cauline leaves; inflorescence sometimes compound; umbels 10–15-flowered; involucral bracts 7–9, ovate, tomentose with 1–3 prominent purple veins, entire or occasionally 3–4-lobed, 3–5 mm long, apices acute. Petals white or pink with a darker midvein, pubescent on outside, c. 1 mm long. Fruit 5–10 per umbel, oblong, 4–5(–7) mm long, dark red-brown to black, glabrous or sparsely hairy, with 5 prominent rounded to acute red-brown to straw-coloured yellow ribs. Flowers summer.
