Short medium hairy plant with a stout horizontal rhizome. Stems much branched, erect or spreading. Leaves are rounded in outline but split into 5 to 7 pinnately divided lobes. Flowers usually deep reddish purple, 25 to 30 mm across, usually solitary the petals slightly notched and the stalks with a pair of small bracts near the centre.

Grassland or woodland, usually on limestone, and often coastal. Sometimes occurs as a garden escape.

Flowering June to August.

Perennial.

Widespread in most of Britain, but often local.

Uncommon in Leicestershire and Rutland where it is most likely to occur as a garden escape. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 2 of the 617 tetrads.