Shrubs to 2 m tall, glabrous. Bark dark grayish brown. Branchlets sometimes arched. Leaves digitate, 4-foliolate; peti­ole 3-8 mm on long branchlets, nearly absent on short branch­lets; leaflet blades lanceolate to obovate-lanceolate, 2-8 × 1-4 mm, base cuneate, apex acute. Flowers solitary. Pedicel 5-8 mm, articulate basally to near middle. Calyx tube tubular-cam­panulate, 5-6 mm, glaucous. Corolla yellow, 1.4-1.6 cm; stan­dard broadly ovate, ca. 1.4 cm, claw ca. 4 mm; wings with claw ± as long as limb, auricle dentiform and small; keel with claw ± as long as limb, auricle dentiform. Ovary glabrous. Legume dark brown when mature, cylindric, 1-2.5(-3.5) cm. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Aug-Sep. 2n = 16.

Riverbanks, valleys, mixed scrub; 1800-3800 m. Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, W Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [N India, Kashmir, Paki­stan].