Perennial herbs or shrubs, usually glandular and villous, sometimes spiny. Leaves pinnately 1-3(-5)-foliolate, lateral often reduced or absent; stipules herbaceous, usually adnate to petiole, cauline stipules basally connate, bifid; stipels absent; leaflets toothed, lateral veins extending into teeth. Flowers 1-3 in short axillary racemes; peduncle often bristlelike; floral leaves sometimes reduced to bracts with flowers crowded into a spike. Calyx campanulate or tubular; teeth ± equal. Petals free from staminal tube, claw short; keel ± beaked. Stamens monadelphous; filaments dilated at apex; anthers dimorphic, alternately basifixed and dorsifixed. Ovary shortly stipitate; ovules 2 to many. Legume linear-oblong or ovate. Seed reniform, smooth or punctate.

About 75 species: N Africa, SW Asia, Europe; four species (two introduced) in China.