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Annual or perennial erect or prostrate herbs. Leaves paripinnately 4-foliolate, rarely 3-foliolate; stipules partly adnate to the petiole, membranous, apiculate, persistent and veined; stipels absent. Inflorescences axillary short dense sessile 2–7-flowered spikes; bracts membranous, the primary ones biapiculate; bracteoles absent. Flowers ± sessile, soon deciduous; receptacle long and filiform, pedicel-like. Calyx membranous, filiform, 5-lobed, the 4 upper lobes joined, the lower ± free. Flowers small or medium-sized, yellow, sometimes striped with red. Standard rounded, shortly narrowed at the base; wings free; keel beaked, incurved. Stamens all joined, 8–10; 4–5 anthers elongate and subbasifixed, alternating with 4–5 short and versatile ones. Ovary subsessile, situated at the base of the receptacular tube, linear, (l–)2–4(–7)-ovuled; style filiform, very long, soon deciduous; stigma minute, terminal. Fruit oblong or sausage-shaped, 1–6-seeded, restricted between the seeds but not articulated, continuous inside, functionally indehiscent, the walls thick and reticulate, developing below the soil, having been pushed beneath by the considerable lengthening, reflexing and stiffening of the gynophore. Seeds irregularly ovoid or oblong; cotyledons thick and fleshy, rich in oil.