Semiaquilegia adoxoides, Tuber blackish brown, 1--2 cm, 3--6 mm in diam. Stem 1--5, 10--32 cm tall, 1--2 mm in diam., sparsely white hairy, branched. Basal leaves numerous, sheathed; petiole 3--12 cm; leaf blade ovate, suborbicular, or reniform, 1.2--3 cm, glabrous; leaflets flabellate-rhombic to obovate-rhombic, 0.6--2.5 × 1--2.8 cm, 3-parted; segments 2- or 3-lobed. Stem leaves shortly petiolate, similar to basal leaves but smaller. Bracts oblanceolate to obovate. Flowers 4--6 mm in diam. Pedicel slender, 1--2.5 cm, spreading white pubescent. Sepals white usually tinged with purple, narrowly elliptic, 4--6 × 1.2--2.5 mm, apex acute.
The isolation of a new nitroethylphenolic glycoside, 4-hydroxy-1-(2-nitroethyl) benzene 4-O-(6′-O-β-d-xylopyranosyl)-β-d-glucopyranoside (1), from the roots of Semiaquilegiaadoxoides is reported. The isolation of griffonilide, lithospermoside and magnoflorine from the roots of Semiaquilegiaadoxoides.