Perennial from a taproot, strigulose or pilose with basifixed hairs; stems clustered on a root crown, spreading, distally ascending, 0.5-3 dm long; leaves pinnately compound, 6-20 cm long; leaflets 19-40, becoming smaller up the rachis, mostly elliptic, 4-15 mm long, 2-4 times longer than wide, grayish or greenish; stipules free; inflorescences within foliage, flowers pea-like, 6-20 per raceme, initially contiguous, then loosening and declined; calyx tube usually swollen at base, 7-9 mm long, usually purplish, lobes 2-4 mm; corolla 13-19 mm long, dull purple, greenish-purple to pink; ovules 28-33; fruits declined to humistrate, sessile, 1.5-3 cm long, 7-10 mm in diameter, curved, unilocular, or with narrow septum to 1 mm, and then sub-bilocular, deciduous, dehiscent, dorsal and ventral faces initially only depressed but sulcate at maturity, valves thick and pulpy when fresh, woody with age, coarsely cross-ridged, slightly hairy. Flowers late May to October.