Perennial with a woody rootstock and several erect unbranched stems or, under favourable conditions, a bushy herb, up to 1·3 m. tall, much branched above.. Stems terete or finely ribbed above, tomentose with fine mostly rather spreading hairs.. Leaves rather shortly petiolate, mostly 3-foliolate, with the uppermost usually 1-foliolate; leaflets oblanceolate-oblong to oblong-elliptic, up to 62–85 mm. long, 23–30 mm. wide, with the lower ones often broader and shorter, glabrous to tomentose above, appressed pubescent or tomentose beneath, with the median and lateral veins prominent beneath; petiole up to 5–17 mm. long.. Stipules filiform, up to 5 mm. long, sometimes small and evanescent.. Racemes shortly pedunculate, up to 10–17 cm. long, with 3–20 laxly or closely arranged flowers; bracts linear-subulate, up to 10 mm. long, persistent; bracteoles inserted on the upper part of the pedicel, filiform, up to 3·5–5 mm. long.. Calyx 14–18 mm. long, velvety or silky tomentose; lobes narrowly triangular, 2–3 times as long as the tube.. Standard suborbicular, bright deep yellow, uniformly silky pubescent outside; wings as long as the keel; keel semiorbicular, with a short blunt slightly incurved untwisted beak, 16–18 mm. long, with the lateral surfaces uniformly silky pilose except along the upper edge and on the beak.. Pod subsessile, shortly and broadly cylindrical, up to 25 mm. long, 15 mm. across, long spreading tomentose, ± 10–22-seeded.. Seeds obliquely oblong-cordiform, ± 4 mm. long, with a very small aril, smooth, ochre.
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Very similar to C.lachnocarpoides, but easily distinguished by the keel which is covered by a dense silky indumentum apart from the upper margin and the short beak, it is also more commonly suffrutescent, its uppermost leaves often 1-foliolate, the leaflets pointed to rounded at the apex and sometimes not densely hairy above, the racemes 4–20-flowered and the keel 1.4–1.8 cm long.
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