Its leaves consist of three sets of mostly three leaflets, which may be deeply incised themselves, resulting in ten to thirty oval or longish oval segments (1½-5 or rarely up to 6½ cm wide), with a wedge-shaped foot, a more or less pointy tip, shiny bright green upper surface, and a (nearly) hairless, distinctly blue-green underside.

[4] The flowers are set individually at the top of the stems, are mostly subtended by one or two bracts looking like a leaf segment, and may be up to 15–16 cm in diameter.

The fruit consists of two to three (seldom one or four) follicles, each of which is up to 2½-4 cm high, and is covered in dense felty hairs which persist when fully grown.

P. broteri also looks like the sympatric P. coriacea, but this species can be distinguished by its hairless carpels and wider leaflet segments (2–8 cm).

P. mascula may also be confused with P. broteri, but this has only ten to eighteen (seldom up to twenty one) and larger (4½–18 × 3–9 cm) leaflet segments, while its carpels are mostly hairless and if present the hairs are about 2 mm long, whereas the densely hairy carpels of P. broteri carry hairs about 3 mm long.

[4] Despite its wide range, it is very dispersed through shrubs, oak or pine forests, in limestone soils from 300 to 1,830 m (980 to 6,000 ft) in altitude.

It grows in meadows, pastures and in the undergrowth of schrubs, pine and oak forests on well-matured soils on limestone, at an altitude between 300 and 1800 m.[4] It is also common in rocky places and screes, particularly in humid spots.