Leaves both basal and alternate on the stem, 1-3 times compound, with each division in threes. The small leaflets, in threes, are more or less oval with rounded lobes. Stems slender, much-branched. Roots fibrous, short-lived. Rhizomes thin, woody.
Distinctive petals extend backward into long hollow spurs ending in nectar-filled knobs.
The constriction in the funnel-shaped spur just below the secreting bulbous tip prevents small bees from getting at the nectar. Fruit erect, five parallel ascending follicles with outcurving tips. Nova Scotia to the Northwest Territories, south to Florida and Texas. Open sites that are steep and rocky but somewhat moist, such as wooded bluffs of streams, wooded slopes, streambanks, banks and slopes of deep ravines, limestone bluffs and ledges, borders and clearings in deciduous or mixed woods or thickets. Thin soils over granitic bedrock, steep hillsides of thin loess over limestone or quartzite bedrock, and on gravelly glacial moraine.