Perennial or annual herb up to 15(–30) cm high, vegetative parts puberulous with curved hairs. Leaves elliptic, 27–48 x (10–)15–20 mm, cuneate to truncate at the base, rounded to acute at the apex. Racemes lateral, up to 1 cm long, with very crowded flowers; bracts persistent; pedicel up to 2.5 mm long. Outer sepals 2.5–3.5 mm long, free; wings obliquely elliptic, 4–7 x 2.5–3.7 mm, acute or rounded at the tip, white with greenish veins, glabrous or pubescent. Upper petals falcate-oblong, two thirds as long as wings; keel yellowish, slightly shorter than wings, with a small pink or yellowish appendage at the tip. Capsule obovate to broadly oblong, 4–6.5 x 3.5–5 mm, broadly winged, emarginate, ciliate. Seeds up to 4 x 2 mm overall, with short off-white hairs; caruncle 0.7 x 0.7 mm, with 3 appendages 0.7–2.5 mm long.
A very polymorphic species. The Somali plants agree with P. kassasii Chrtek (1976) from Sudan in their c. 2.4–2.5 mm long caruncle appendages and capsules larger than the wings, but I believe this should be included in the variable P. sadebeckiana.
