The stem is greenish-gray, round, erect, and lightly grooved, and it is branched at the top.

The leaves are quite large, biternate, and petiolated, with a prominent central rib.

It is widespread in most of Europe except Albania, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Portugal.

It grows in mountain dry forests, on grassy slopes, on the sunny edges of woods, or in meadows.

It prefers calcareous soils and a nutrient-rich substrate, at an elevation of 400 to 2,100 metres (1,300 to 6,900 ft).