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Perennial herb with a stout woody taproot; stems prostrate, often forming a mat; hairs spreading, up to 1.5 mm. long.. Leaf-rhachis up to 4.5 cm. long, including a petiole of 3–12 mm., usually not prolonged beyond lateral leaflets; stipules ovate-lanceolate, up to 5 by 3 mm.; leaflets 5–11, cuneate-elliptic or cuneate-obovate, up to 26 by 17 mm., rounded or truncate at the tip, apiculate, glabrous or very sparsely pilose above, pilose beneath; chief nerves ± 7 on each side.. Flowers pinkish-purple in short lax pseudoracemes and sometimes in upper leaf-axils; bracts persistent, ovate-acuminate or lanceolate, ± 3 mm. long; pedicels up to 8 mm. long.. Calyx white pubescent; tube ± 3 mm. long; teeth acuminate, 4–5 mm. long, the upper pair half united.. Standard white pubescent, ± 9 by 9 mm.; keel glabrous.. Upper filament free, somewhat widened, but not callous or bent, just above the base; filament-sheath ± 8 mm., free parts 3–5 mm., anthers 0.8 mm. long.. Style pubescent, bent through 80° near the base, ± 7 mm. long.. Pod white pubescent, perhaps indehiscent, 10–20 by 6 mm., the beak ± central, down-curved.. Seeds 1–5, oblong-elliptic, longitudinal, ± 5 by 3 by 1.5 mm.; hilum almost central, the aril minute.
Leaves pinnate with (2)3–4(5) pairs of leaflets; rachis and petiole together up to 3.5(5) cm long, the petiole up to 1.3(1.7) cm long, rather conspicuously spreading-pubescent; leaflets up to 22(33) × 12(17) mm, often becoming smaller towards the leaf base, obovate to obtriangular, rounded to truncate or emarginate at the apex, cuneate at the base, the upper surface glabrous, the lower surface appressed-pubescent; stipules 3–5(6) × 2–3 mm, ovate-acuminate to lanceolate.
Flowers in terminal racemes up to 5(7) cm long, subsessile or with a peduncle up to 4 cm, rarely the lowermost flower in the axil of a foliage leaf; bracts ovate-lanceolate; pedicels (3)4–7(8) mm long.
Calyx 4–6 mm long, appressed or spreading-pubescent, teeth about equalling the tube or the lower one somewhat longer, the two upper ones joined for about ½–¾ their length.
Perennial, with numerous prostrate branches up to 160 cm long, the older parts often woody, arising from a woody vertical rootstock, the whole usually forming a dense mat.
Petals (7)10–14 mm long, mauve or pink; standard broadly rounded, cuneate or truncate at the base.
Seeds (1)2–4(5), 3–4 mm long, reniform to suborbicular-lenticular, greyish-or reddish-brown.
Pod (7)12–22 × 6–8 mm, oblong, shortly pubescent, or glabrescent at maturity.
Stems usually conspicuously spreading-pubescent.
Stamen tube open above, the upper stamen free.
Ovary whitish pubescent; style pubescent.
