It produces approximately eight leaves, sparsely covered in fine downy hairs and measuring 3–4.5 cm (1.2–1.8 in) in length.

The sepals are blue to pinkish-white, oval-shaped and 0.5–7 cm (0.2–2.8 in) long, with a smooth upper and downy lower surface.

[3] It was variously reassigned to the genera Aquilegia (by Achille Eugène Finet and François Gagnepain in 1904) and Semiaquilegia (by James Ramsay Drummond and John Hutchinson in 1920) before its now-accepted classification as a new genus Urophysa by Oskar Eberhard Ulbrich in 1929.

[1] The specific epithet henryi honours the Irish botanist Augustine Henry,[4] who collected the type specimen from the vicinity of Liantuo village near Yichang, Hubei Province, China.

[3] Urophysa henryi is native to Guizhou, western Hubei, northwestern Hunan, and Sichuan provinces in China.