Herbs, 3-35 cm tall, acaulescent, from a multiheaded caudex, tuft-forming, clothed with marcescent petioles and stipules. Stipules narrowly triangular, ca. 10 × 3 mm, membranous, whitish or yellowish villous and sometimes with obscure glands, often with adherent sand grains, basally connate. Leaves 5-20 cm; leaflets opposite or alternate, some nearly or actually verticillate, either 11-19, 25-31, or 27-47 blades; leaflet blades lanceolate, oblong, or ovate, 5-15 × 1-4 mm, ± involute, with whitish long trichomes. Racemes rather lax, 5-10-flowered; peduncle (1.5-)3.5-10(-15) cm, subequal to or shorter than leaves; bracts triangular, 8-14 × 3-4(-6) mm, herbaceous, with trichomes and raised yellowish glands. Calyx cylindric, 10-18 × 3-4 mm, with whitish and blackish trichomes and dense glands or glands lacking; lobes subulate, 2.5-5 × ca. 0.5 mm. Corolla purple, pink, purplish white, blue, purplish blue, violet, red, or white; standard 2.4-2.6 cm, lamina ovate; wings 2-2.4 cm, lamina obovate, apex rounded; keel 1.9-2 cm, beak 1.1-2.5 mm. Legume reddish when young, erect-ascending, stipitate; stipe to 1.8 mm; body falcate-oblong, 2.2-5 cm × 4-8 mm, slightly inflated, leathery, villous and with or without glands. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Jul-Sep.
Sunny slopes, river floodplains, riverside meadows, hillsides, grasslands, alpine meadows, sandy and stony areas, valley bottoms, desert grasslands and flooded places, it is also associated with Picea forests; at elevations from 2,700-5,200 metres.
Can be grown by seedlings. Seeds needs soaking.
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