Annual herb, occasionally extending into a second season of growth, then ligneous below, weak stemmed and sprawling to decumbent, to 15-30 cm long, branching mainly at the base, the slender terete stems only 2.5 mm diameter, densely canescent with curved hairs ca. 0.5 mm long, and with numerous spread-ing pilose hairs 1-2 mm long, glabrescent. Leaves 8-1 1-digitately compound, the larger leaflets 2-3 cm long, 3-6 mm wide, generally conduplicate, glabrous above, thinly pilose beneath; petioles filiform, 4-6 cm long, twice as long as the leaflets, pubescent as on the stems; stipules subulate-caudate, 12-15 mm long, the free tips 6-8 mm long, with both long and short hair types. Inflorescences inconspic-uous, the lower flowers held within the foliage, the rachis with both hair types as on the stems, racemes only 5-12 cm long, the flowers whorled or scattered; bracts 5-10 mm long, caducous by anthesis; pedicels 2.5-3.5 mm long, hispidu-lose. Flowers with the calyx strongly 2-lipped, the lower lip nearly straight, 5-6.5 mm long, entire or tridentate, densely pilose canescent outside, the upper lip 4-5 mm long, deeply bifid, the notch 1.6-3 mm deep; the standard obovate; 9-10 mm long, 7-8 mm wide, the wings apically connate, slightly longer than the standard, less than 5 mm wide, occasionally with lateral cilia on the veins of the crimped basal portion, the keels densely ciliate above toward the acumen; ovary strongly ascending pilose, the style curved upward, the stigma capitate, bearded. Legume oblong, 2-3 cm long, 6-7 mm wide, canescent and copiously pilose with longer hairs, slightly constricted between the 7-8 seeds; seeds dark, mottled, convex, 3 mm long, 2 mm wide.
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