Plants up to 100 cm tall or more; hairs short and a few long, appressed to spreading, white, in inflorescence also dark brown. Stem 4-8 mm thick, erect, loosely to rather densely covered with ± spreading rigid hairs 0.8-2(-2.5) mm. Leaves 10-24 cm, subsessile; stipules 6-11 mm, often spreading or reflexed, with long, spreading, white or white and blackish hairs; rachis sparsely to loosely white hairy; leaflets in 7-11 pairs, widely elliptic, 7-26 × 4-20 mm, glabrous or abaxially sparsely to loosely white hairy, apex truncate to retuse, with a minute but distinct cusp. Racemes 1.5-6 cm, rather densely 10-17-flowered, elongating in fruit to 8-10 cm; peduncle at anthesis 8-12 cm, elongating up to 20 cm with age, glabrous or with hairs 1-3 mm; bracts soon falling, 4-10 mm, ciliate. Bracteoles 0.5-6 mm. Calyx 11-13 mm, at base with dark brownish hairs, in upper part nearly glabrous; teeth unequal, 2-3.5 mm. Petals purplish, pink, or violet; standard ovate or elliptic, 19-26 × 11-14 mm, apex emarginate; wings 19-26 mm; keel 17-23 mm. Stigma covered with white hairs up to 1 mm. Legumes with a stipe 10-14 mm, narrowly ellipsoid, 4.5-6.4 cm, 0.8-1.4 cm high and wide, keeled ventrally, grooved dorsally, with a beak 3-5 mm, incompletely to completely 2-locular; valves thin, glabrous.
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A herb. It grows 1 m tall. The stems are 4-8 mm thick and covered with hairs. The leaves are 10-24 cm long with 7-11 pairs of leaflets. These are 7-26 mm long by 4-20 mm wide. The pods is 5-6 cm long by 1 cm wide.
Gravel in steppes, edges of forests; at elevations from 1,500-2,200 metres in Gansu, W Nei. Mongol, Ningxia and Qinghai Provinces.
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It is a cool temperate plant. In north China it grows between 1,400-2,400 m above sea level.
Can be grown by seedlings. Seeds needs soaking.