Shrub up to 2 m. tall or somewhat woody perennial herb; stems nearly glabrous. Leaf-lamina up to 10 × 7 cm., ovate to narrowly ovate or ovate-lanceolate, glabrous or nearly so (with occasional hairs on the veins of the lower surface), rarely obscurely 3–5-lobed, apex acute or somewhat rounded, margin coarsely serrate, serrate, or crenate, base obtuse, truncate or slightly cordate; petiole up to 6 cm. long, usually nearly glabrous except for a longitudinal line of pubescence on the adaxial surface; stipules 5–6 mm. long, filiform to narrowly linear, usually glabrous. Flowers up to c. 8 cm. in diam., yellow with dark centre, solitary, axillary; peduncle up to 10 mm. long, glabrous or puberulous, not conspicuously articulated. Epicalyx of (usually) 5 bracts; bracts up to 20 × 2 mm., lorate, glabrous or nearly so, approximately equalling the calyx-lobes, joined for 1–2 mm. at the base. Calyx up to 20 mm. long, nearly glabrous; lobes ± lorate or caudate with 1 prominent central nerve, nearly glabrous, joined for up to c. 7 mm. at the base. Petals up to 7·7 × 4·5 cm., obovate, pubescent outside where not overlapping, densely tomentellous in bud. Staminal tube 20–25 mm. long; free parts of filaments 2·5–3 mm. long. Style-branches 3–4 mm. long. Capsule 15–20 mm. in diam., subglobose, stellate-setulose, valves gradually attenuated into awns up to 6 mm. long. Seeds 2·5 × 3 mm., subreniform, minutely stellate-puberulous.