Aerial shoots (30-)40-70 cm. Basal leaves silky. Inflorescences (2-)5-7-flowered cymes; peduncle villous; involucral bracts (1-)2-tiered, silky. Flowers: sepals 5(-9), green to yellow, blue, purple, or red (rarely abaxially blue or red and adaxially white or yellow), ovate or oblong, 6-17 mm. Achenes: beak ± straight. 2 n =32.

Flowering spring-summer (Apr-Jul). Open forests, grassy slopes, often rocky areas, also moist prairie depressions, coulees, sandhill shrubland; 0-3200 m; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld., N.W.T., Ont., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Calif., Colo., Idaho, Maine, Mich., Minn., Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.Mex., N.Y., N.Dak., Oreg., S.Dak., Utah, Vt., Wash., Wis., Wyo; South America (Chile and Argentina).

According to D. E. Moerman (1986), the Blackfeet burned Anemone multifida var. multifida on hot coals to alleviate headaches.