Perennial herbs, 10-20 cm tall. Stems erect, branched, white. Stipules broadly obovate, acute, 1.5-2.5 cm; petiole 1-3 mm, or leaves sessile; leaflets obovate, 1-2.5 × to 1.6 cm, white spreading villous abaxially, especially when young, glabrous adaxially, base cuneate, asymmetric, apex acute. Racemes lax, 3-10 cm; bracts 1-1.5 cm; peduncle 5-7 mm. Calyx 16-20 mm, slightly gibbous, white villous. Corolla yellow, ca. 2.5 cm, petals subequal. Ovary 12-17-ovuled, linear, with 5-10 mm stipe. Legume pale brown, broadly ovate, 3-5 × 1.8-3 cm, inflated, curved downward, white villous, base with stipe equal to calyx, apex rounded, with a long beak exserted from dorsal suture. Seeds numerous, black, reniform, 6-7 × 4-5 mm, smooth. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul-Aug.
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A shrub. The root is woody. It has a creeping rhizome or underground stem. The erectstem is 75 cm high. The leaves have leaflets. The leaflets are 1-2.7 cm long by 0.5-1.6 cm wide. They are broadly oval. The flowering shoot has 2-3 flowers at each node. The fruit are about 5 cm long. They are inflated. There are 6-10 seeds.
It is a temperate plant. It grows up to 4,000 m altitude in the Himalayas. In western China it grows in gravelly meadows and alpine rocky cliffs between 4,500-5,000 m above sea level.
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