Herbs, 10-50 cm tall or more, acaulescent, from a simple or multiheaded caudex, hirsute with spreading coarse long straight rigid trichomes. Stipules narrowly triangular, 2-3 cm × 3-5 mm, membranous, with whitish rigid trichomes, basally connate. Leaves 10-15 cm or more, 9-21-foliolate; leaflet blades elliptic, lanceolate, or ovate, 1-5 × 0.5-2 cm (largest in Oxytropis species for China), base rounded to obtuse, apex acute to rounded. Racemes elongate, 6-14 cm, many flowered; peduncle 10-40 cm, coarse, as long as to longer than leaves; bracts triangular, 10-13 × 3-4 mm, with rigid trichomes, margin ciliate. Calyx subcylindric, 8-10 × ca. 3.5 mm, usually with spreading dense trichomes, sometimes glabrous but lobes with trichomes; lobes subulate, 4-5 × ca. 0.5 mm, subequal to tube. Corolla bluish purple, purple, blue, red, light yellow, yellowish green, reddish violet, pink, yellow, red, or white; standard 1.5-2 cm, lamina oblong-ovate, apex rounded; wings 1.4-1.8 cm, lamina obliquely obovate, apically entire or emarginate; keel 1.5-1.6 cm, beak 1-2 mm. Legume sessile, ovoid, 12-14 × 4-5 mm, with dense trichomes. Fl. May-Sep, fr. Jul-Sep. 2n = 16, 32.
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