Herbs, perennial, 20-50 cm tall, sometimes with a thick tuber. Stems slender, many branched, glabrous. Stipules lanceolate, ca. 1 mm, glabrous, with a long auricle at base. Leaves 2-foliolate; leaflet blades ovate-oblong, obovate, or lanceolate, 0.8-2.5 × 0.3-0.9 cm, glabrous but abaxially with brown and black glands, base oblique, apex acute and mucronate. Inflorescences axillary spikes, 2-6 cm, sparsely 3-6(-10)-flowered; bracts 2, ovate, 6-7(-10) mm, peltately inserted, margin ciliate. Calyx ca. 3 mm. Corolla yellow; standard with longitudinal striations; wings and keels small. Legume usually longer to rarely shorter than bracts, divided into 2-7 articles; articles subglobose, 2-4 × 2-4 mm, echinate-setose, with conspicuous reticulate veins. Seeds not seen. Fl. Apr-Jul, fr. Jul-Sep.