suffruticose, suberect or ascending, strigoso-canescent, densely leafy; branches ribbed and furrowed; leaves trifoliolate, leaflets of the lower leaves cuneate-obovate, of the upper sublanceolate, all mucronate, expanded, strigoso-canescent; stipules small, subulate, patent; racemes subspicate, on peduncles longer than the leaves, densely many-flowered; bracts shorter than the calyx; calyx canous, whitish, its segments subulate-acuminate; petals pubescent; legumes terete, pendulous, thinly strigillose. Stem 6–12 inches high, erect or more or less diffuse, scarcely procumbent, thinly canescent, with short, sparse, white hairs. Leaves crowded; the petiole 3–7 lines long. Leaflets 4–7 lines long, those of the lower leaves shorter and broader. Racemes either very dense or, in weakly grown specimens, laxly flowered. The common petiole sometimes extends a short way beyond the insertion of the lateral leaflets, and then this species comes very close to I. intermedia, which has a more evidently petioled, terminal leaflet.
