Description from
Flora of China
Caragana intermedia Kuang & H. C. Fu; C. korshinskii f. brachypoda Y. X. Liou; C. korshinskii var. intermedia (Kuang & H. C. Fu) M. L. Zhang & G. H. Zhu; C. microphylla Lamarck var. tomentosa Komarov.
Shrubs or trees, 1-4 m tall. Branches golden yellow, shiny; branchlets pubescent. Stipules spinelike, 3-7 mm. Leaves pinnate, 12-16-foliolate; petiole and rachis 3-5 cm, caducous; leaflet blades lanceolate to narrowly oblong, 7-8 × 2-7 mm, whitish, both surfaces densely appressed sericeous, apex acute to obtuse. Flowers solitary. Pedicel 0.6-1.5 cm, articulate apically. Calyx tube tubular-campanulate, 8-9 mm. Corolla 2-2.3 cm; standard broadly ovate to suborbicular, claw short, apex truncate to slightly emarginate; wings with claw slightly shorter than limb, auricle small and dentiform; keel with long claw, auricle very small. Ovary glabrous. Legume lanceolate, 2-2.5 cm × 6-7 mm, flat. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun-Jul. 2n = 16.
Although the type of Caragana intermedia is synonymous with C. korshinskii, most specimens identified in herbaria as C. intermedia and treated as such in FRPS (42(1): 47. 1993) are misidentified and actually are C. liouana.
Semiconsolidated sand dunes; 900-2400 m. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, W Shanxi, Xinjiang [Mongolia].
