Slender, perennial herb or dwarf shrub, 0.3-1.0 m high. Leaves petiolate, digitately trifoliolate. Leaflets obovate, minutely pubescent. Stipules consistently present. Inflorescences 1(2)-flowered, arising opposite a leaf on lateral branches. Flowers yellow. Calyx long, deeply bilabiate. Flowering time Apr.-Nov. Pod widely linear. Seeds round to oblong in lateral view, orange to pale yellow-brown.
Inflorescence 1-flowered (rarely 2-flowered), inserted at opposite leaves. Calyx long, 4.5-7 mm long, deeply bilabiate, with acuminate lobes. Leaves 3-digitate; leaflets obovate, minutely pubescent. Stipules consistently present. Fruit broadly linear, 4-5.5 mm wide, (2-)4(-5)-seeded. Seed round to oblong in lateral view, orange to pale yellow-brown.
Wide, spreading, reseeding shrublet to 30 cm. Leaves digitately 3-foliolate, glaucous, leaflets obovate, adpressed-hairy beneath. Flowers solitary, inserted between opposite leaves, yellow, fading orange-brown. Pods oblong, constricted between seeds.