suffruticose, erect or ascending, the stem, petioles and long peduncles shaggy with rusty, deflexed hairs; leaves petiolate, leaflets 3, elliptic-oblong, obovate, or ovate, pubescent above, rather paler and more silky but reticulately veined beneath; stipules lanceolate, free; peduncles elongate, shortly and densely spicato-racemose at the summit; calyx segments shorter than the tube; vexillum puberulent; legume shaggy. Stems 1–2 feet high, branching, woody at base, more or less hairy. Stipules membranous, brown, narrow, 2–3 lines long. Lower petioles 1/2 inch, upper 1 inch or more long. Leaflets 1 1/2–2 inches long, 3/4–1 inch wide, mostly elliptic, varying to obovate and oblong; in some varieties ovate. Peduncles 3–6 inches long, the raceme 1–1 1/2 inch long. Flowers subsessile, strongly reflexed, 3–3 1/2 lines long. Calyx scarcely 1 line long, pubescent; the lobes broad, about equal in length. Vexillum minutely downy. Legume 6 lines long, 3–4 wide, very shaggy with foxy hairs.
