Stems erect, nearly cespitose or rhizomatous, 15-150 cm, glabrous or somewhat glandular. Leaves basal, 7-30 cm. Leaf blade 3-4-ternate; leaflets nearly orbiculate or broadly ovate, irregularly 2-3-lobed or margins dentate in distal 1/2, 15-30 mm, surfaces glabrous to glandular. Inflorescences panicles with long branches, many flowered. Flowers: pedicels not recurved in fruit; sepals yellowish green, ovate, 3-4 mm; stamens 10-15; anthers yellowish, 2-3 mm. Achenes 3-15, sessile; body broadly ovoid to narrowly oblong-ovoid, 2.5-4 mm, ± weakly veined.

Flowering late spring-summer (Jun-Jul). Steppe meadows, shrub thickets, forest margins, and forest meadows; 0-300 m; Alaska; Eurasia.

Thalictrum minus has been reported from mainland Alaska (E. Hultén 1968); we have been able to confirm its occurrence only in the Aleutian Islands.

Initially pendent, the flowers become erect. The beak is 0.75-1 mm, much shorter than the achene, and not fimbriate.