Desmodium macrophyllum Desvaux; D. recurvatum (Rox­burgh) Graham ex Wight & Arnott; Hedysarum recurvatum Roxburgh.

Subshrubs or shrubs, erect, 30-120 cm tall. Young branch­lets with adpressed and minute hooked hairs. Leaves 3-folio­late; petiole 1.5-4 cm; terminal leaflet blade ovate or ovate-elliptic, 9-19 × 3-8 cm, abaxially densely yellow sericeous, adaxially sparsely adpressed hairy, lateral veins 9-12, apex shortly acuminate. Racemes terminal and axillary, often 2 axil­lary, to 28 cm; rachis pubescent intermixed with minute hooked hairs, 2-7-flowered, fascicled. Pedicel 5-10 mm, densely hairy as rachis. Calyx densely villous; upper lobes entire or nearly so at apex. Corolla white to violet, 4-7 mm; standard broadly obo­vate or orbicular; wings auriculate and clawed; keel clawed. Legume linear, 2-6 cm, with dense, minute, hooked hairs, 4-12-jointed, both sutures nearly not constricted between articles; articles oblong. Fl. Aug-Oct, fr. Oct-Nov. 2n = 22.

Secondary forest margins, thickets, grassy slopes; 200-2400 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Si­chuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam].