Perennial from scaly, stout, horizontal rhizomes, the flowering stems 1-3 dm. tall.
Leaves are basal single, trifoliate, the leaflets once or twice shallowly lobed and remotely serrate; the flowering stem naked except for a whorl of 3 leaves near the top, these trifoliate, petiolate, the leaflets up to 8 cm. long, the lateral pair deeply lobed, all remotely toothed.
Flowers single; sepals usually 5, ovate-oblong, 12-20 mm. long, usually blue to blue-violet, but occasionally white or pinkish; petals none; stamens 35-100; pistils numerous.
Achenes narrowly oblong, 4 mm. long, finely pubescent; style 0.5 mm. long, glabrous.
Grows in moist, open woods, low to mid-elevations in the mountains, also in marshes and bogs along the coast.
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