Description from
Flora of China
Chesneya potaninii (Yakovlev) Govaerts; Oxytropis grubovii N. Ulziykhutag (1971), not Chesneya grubovii Yakovlev (1979); Spongiocarpella grubovii (N. Ulziykhutag) Yakovlev; S. potaninii Yakovlev.
Plants cushionlike. Stems shortened, 5-10 cm tall. Leaves 2-4 cm, 7- or 9-foliolate; stipules ovate, ca. 4 mm, submembranous, adnate to petiole for ca. 1/2 its length, persistent, with dense white long appressed hairs; axis and petiole rarely with spreading white long hairs, persistent and forming spines at apex; leaflet blades elliptic or obovate, 5-6 × ca. 3 mm, both surfaces with white silky short appressed hairs, base cuneate, apex acute or spinelike. Flowers solitary; pedicels 4-5 mm; bracts linear, ca. 8 mm; bracteoles similar to bracts. Calyx tubular, ca. 15 mm, with dense long hairs and dark brown glands, gibbous at base, inflated on one side; teeth linear, almost as long as tube, with glands at apex. Corolla purple; standard ca. 25 mm, lamina oblong, with dense short hairs abaxially; wings ca. 20 mm; keel shorter than wings. Ovary sessile, with dense hairs. Legume unknown. Fl. Jun, fr. Jul.
Dry slopes. Nei Mongol, Xinjiang [Mongolia].