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Perennial herb with spreading prostrate or somewhat ascending branches, finely hirsute with longer scattered bristle-like bulbous-based hairs on all vegetative parts; branches up to 1·2 m. long. Leaves unequal; the larger up to 9 cm. long, with up to 9 pairs of leaflets; the smaller up to 5 cm. long, with up to 4 pairs of leaflets. Leaflets 4–20 × 2–11 mm., oblique, very variable, oblong, oblong-ovate or ovate, acute or subacute, pubescent on both surfaces or glabrous above, often ciliate. Stipules up to 10 mm. long, linear-lanceolate to obliquely ovate, ciliate. Peduncle 1·5 to 2 times as long as the subtending leaf. Sepals 5–10 (12) × 1·8–2 mm., linear-lanceolate, acute, densely pubescent. Petals bright yellow, 10–20 (25) mm. long, up to 2·5 times the length of the sepals, broadly cuneate. Filaments 3–4 mm. long, anthers (1·2) 1·5–2·5 (3) mm. long. Style short; stigma 2–3 mm. long, slender, pyramidal. Ovary with stiff bristle-like tubercule-based hairs. Intrastaminal glands connate, forming a shallow cup at the base of the ovary. Fruit breaking up into 5 cocci, each usually with 4 (sometimes 6) equal spines, or spines reduced to thick warts, tuberculate on the dorsal crest and often laterally compressed.