Shrubs to 80 cm tall. Bark brown to dark brown. Stipule spines 1-4 mm on long branchlets. Leaves digitate, 4-foliolate; petiole 5-10 mm and persistent on long branchlets, absent on short branchlets; leaflet blades narrowly lanceolate, obovate-cuneate, or linear, 5-7 × 1-1.5 mm, green to grayish green, gla­brous. Flowers solitary. Pedicel ca. 5 mm, articulate basally. Ca­lyx tube tubular, 5-6 mm. Corolla yellow, 1.1-1.2 cm; standard suborbicular, abaxially reddish brown, claw ca. 1/2 as long as limb; wings with claw shorter than limb, auricle ca. 1/4 as long as claw; keel with claw ± as long as limb, auricle ca. 1 mm. Legume 2-2.5 cm, apex acute. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Aug. 2n = 16 + 2B, 18.

Rocky slopes, riversides, among shrubs; 3000-4900 m. Qinghai, W Sichuan, Xizang [Afghanistan, NW India, Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan; SW Asia].