Erect woody-based herb, 0.1–1(–1.2) m high; stems glabrous or pubescent, often becoming leafless or almost so. Leaves linear to narrowly elliptic, usually ± erect, c. 10–40 x 0.5–4 (–6) mm, acute or obtuse at the apex, often with revolute margins, glabrous or with minute hairs. Racemes terminal, up to 20 cm long; pedicels 1–3 mm long. Outer sepals free, 1.5–3 mm long, obtuse; wings obovate-elliptic, c. 5–8 x 3–5 mm, white with purple or green veins, reflexed at anthesis. Upper petals spatulate-truncate, about three fifhts as long as wings, with purplish tip; keel as long as wings, purplish and with a fringed appendage at the tip. Capsule narrowly obovate, c. 6 x 3–3.5 mm, winged, glabrous. Seeds c. 4 x 1.5 mm, with white hairs; caruncle with one lobe extended along one side of the seed.
