Shrub, 1.8-2.5 m tall, branches densely pubescent. Leaf trifoliolate, petiole 3.7-7.5 cm long, leaflets up to 7.5 cm long, orbicular, ovate to obovate, obtuse to acuminate, glabrous to pubescent on both the sides, hairs silky on the lower side, petiolule of lateral leaflets 2-5 mm; stipules c. 5 mm long. Inflorescence a panicle, up to 45 cm long. Bracts 2.5 cm long, bracteoles linear, small. Calyx 2.5 mm long, villous, teeth shorter than the tube. Corolla 10-12.5 mm long, palelilac to dark purple. Fruit sessile, sometimes appearing stipitate by the abortion of basal ovules, 3.0-7.5 cm long, 6-6.5 mm broad, upper suture almost straight, lower indented between the seeds, articles 6-7.5 mm long, pubescent.

Fl.Per.: June-September.

Holotype: In Nepaulia (Wallich).

Distribution: Pakistan, Kashmir, India (Punjab, Kumaon, Bombay, Madras), Nepal, Bhutan.

Ohashi (in Hara, Fl.E. Himal. 2:278.1971) has shown that Desmodium elegans DC. and Desmodium tilii folinm (D. Don) G.Don are conspecific.According to his treatment, our plants belong to subsp. elegans var. elegans

According to Parker (l.c.) ‘Desmodium nutans is easily recognised in the field by its long lax drooping panicles and dark violet purple flowers, but in the herbarium it is scarcely distinguishable from some forms of Desmodium tiliifolium (Desmodium elegans DC.) with which any botanist who did not know the living plant would probably unite it’. Unfortunately none of the specimens are accompanied by adequate field notes to make it possible to keep the two taxa separate. Hence I am obliged to unite the two.