Herbs, 10-25 cm tall, acaulescent, from a simple or branched caudex, clothed with marcescent leaf bases and stip­ules. Stipules ovate to broadly lanceolate, ca. 1.1 cm, mem­branous, with spreading long trichomes, apex acute. Leaves (3-)10-25 cm; leaflets (13 or)15-23, opposite or sometimes alternate; leaflet blades elliptic, narrowly ovate, or lanceolate, 6-29 × 3-5 mm, sericeous. Racemes rather dense, 5-13-flowered or more, with dense black short trichomes; peduncle (4-)6-25 cm, as long as to longer than leaves, sulcate, with dense short trichomes; bracts elliptic, 8-18 × 2-6 mm, papery, sericeous with appressed black short trichomes inter­mixed, base rounded, apex acuminate. Calyx cylindric, (9-)11-13 × ca. 3 mm, with dense black and white short trichomes; lobes subulate to triangular, 1.3-3.5 mm. Corolla bluish purple to pale purple; standard 2.1-2.7 cm, lamina narrowly elliptic, apex rounded; wings 1.7-1.9 cm, lamina obliquely obtriangular, apex rounded or obliquely emarginate; keel 1.6-1.7 cm, beak 1-1.5 mm. Legume sessile, ovoid-ellipsoid, ca. 1.5 × 0.6 cm, leathery, pubes­cent. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.

● Sunny slopes, Betula forests, hillsides, alpine steppes, grass­lands, floodplains, among shrubs; 1700-3800 m. Gansu, Hebei, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang.