Leaves 1-foliolate; leaflet 4–23 × 0.5–5 cm, narrowly lanceolate or lanceolate, acuminate or bluntly acute and mucronulate at the apex, narrowly rounded at the base, pubescent on both surfaces, 3–5-veined from base to apex; petiole 3–5 mm long; stipules 12–30 × 2–5 mm (sometimes appearing wider when pair remain fused on new shoots), lanceolate, pubescent, striate, persistent, sometimes reflexed.
Flowers axillary, solitary, in pairs or in 3–8-flowered fascicles; pedicels 18–90 mm long; pilose; bracts absent; bracteoles minute, caducous, placed on the pedicel well below the calyx.
Calyx pubescent with spreading white hairs; tube 3–5 mm long; lower lobes 2–10 mm long, linear-triangular, central lobe twice as long as the laterals, upper pair completely fused.
Prostrate herb to 50 cm long, arising from a perennial tuberous rootstock, sometimes flowering when leaves are under-developed.
Only one collection seen from the Flora Zambesiaca area; description also based on material from Dem. Rep. Congo and Tanzania.
Ovary 6–9 mm long, linear-oblong, compressed, pubescent; style 5–9 mm long; stigma minute, terminal, capitate, penicillate.
Standard purple, sometimes tinged greenish outside, 13–20 × 12–20 mm, almost round, emarginate; wings and keel pale.
Very immature pods (Richards 15881, Tanzania) are densely white pubescent.
Stems annual, somewhat zigzag, flattened, white pilose.