An undershrub, 60-120 cm tall, branches pubescent. Leaf trifoliolate, petiole up to 7.5 cm long, leaflets up to 7.5 cm long, orbicular, obtuse or acuminate, sparsely silky-pubescent on both sides, becoming glabrescent; the lateral leaflets smaller; stipules 2.5 mm long. Inflorescence axillary and terminal raceme, up to 35 cm long. Bracts minute, linear. Pedicel c. 5 mm long. Calyx c. 1.5 mm long, pubescent, teeth shorter than the tube. Corolla 3.5-4.0 mm long, purplish-pink. Fruit stipitate, stipe c. 5 mm long, fruit almost at right angles to its stipe, 1-2 jointed, each article 7.5-8.0 mm long, c. 4 mm broad, pubescent, upper suture slightly depressed in the centre of the article, lower suture gradually curved in the lower portion of the article and then curved upward.

Fl.Per.: July August.

Type: Described from Japan.

Distribution: Pakistan, Kashmir, India (Punjab, Kumaon, Garhwal); Ceylon, Philippines, China (Tonkin), Japan.

This taxon is different from Desmodium podocarpum sensu Baker (in Fl.Brit.Ind.2:165. 1876), which is partly regarded to be conspecific with Desmodium oxyphyllum DC. For further discussion reference may be made to Prain (in J.As.Soc.Beng. 66:393. 1897). According to Ohashi (l.c. 150.1973) our plants belong to the subsp. oxyphyllum (DC.) Ohashi.