Perennial from a woody rootstock; stems densely fulvous tomentose, up to 40 cm. tall. Leaves (l–)3(–5)-foliolate; stipules narrowly triangular, up to 1 cm. long, becoming blackish; rhachis including petiole 6–25 mm. long, the petiole usually longer than the rest of the rhachis which may be almost absent; leaflets glabrous or almost so above; lateral nerves numerous, prominent. Flowers purple in subsessile subcapitate fulvous tomentose pseudoracemes; bracts linear, up to 1 cm. long; pedicels ± 6 mm. long. Calyx brown tomentose; tube 3–4 mm. long; teeth triangular, long-acuminate, the lowest 5–9 mm. long, the upper pair 4–7 mm., united for 1–2 mm. Standard golden tomentose outside, 18–25 mm. long, ± 15 mm. wide; keel glabrous or slightly tomentose near the tip. Upper filament free, slightly dilated a little above the base; filament-sheath 12–15 mm., free parts 4–5 mm., anthers 1.1 mm. long. Cup-shaped disc between ovary and filaments ±1.5 mm. deep. Style pubescent, curved, 7–10 mm. long; stigma capitate. Pod almost straight, though the upper suture is more convex than the lower, ascending, densely brownish tomentose, up to 4.5 cm. long, ± 1 cm. wide. Seeds 5–8, diagonally transverse, mottled, elliptic; hilum at one corner, hardly arillate; funicle thickened.