Crotalaria deserticola Taub. ex Baker F.

Annual or short-lived perennial, generally erect, laxly branched, up to 7–15 dm. tall, but under adverse conditions sometimes low and diffuse.. Stem obscurely ribbed, thinly appressed puberulous, glabrescent.. Leaves 3-foliolate; leaflets variable, linear to oblanceolate or elliptic, up to 20–75 mm. long, 2–28 mm. wide, glabrous above, thinly appressed puberulous beneath; petiole up to 12–35 mm. long.. Stipules subulate-caudate to linear-lanceolate, up to 1–4 mm. long, mostly rather persistent.. Racemes lax, up to 10–30 cm. long, usually many-flowered; bracts filiform to linear-lanceolate, 1–3 mm. long; bracteoles inserted on the pedicel, very small.. Calyx 3–7 mm. long, protracted on the lower side, glabrous to appressed pubescent; upper lobes narrowly triangular, longer than the tube.. Standard broadly elliptic, obovate or suborbicular, yellow, usually veined reddish-brown, glabrous to medially puberulous outside; wings nearly as long as the keel; keel bent at right-angles in the lower half, with a long narrow twisted beak, 6–18 mm. long.. Pod oblong-clavate, narrowed basally into the 3–9 mm. long stipe, (15–)20–40 mm. long, 4–11 mm. across, appressed puberulous, ± 16–30-seeded.. Seeds oblique-cordiform, ± 2 mm. long, usually smooth, rarely slightly rugulose, yellowish to brown.