Description from
Flora of China
Hedysarum gangeticum Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 746. 1753; Desmodium cavaleriei H. Léveillé.
Shrubs, erect or nearly so, to 1 m tall, much branched, pilose. Leaves 1-foliolate, variable in shape and size; petiole 1-2 cm; blade narrowly elliptic-ovate, sometimes ovate or lanceolate, 3-13 × 2-7 cm, abaxially sparsely gray villous, adaxially glabrous except for hairy midvein, base rounded, apex acute. Racemes terminal and axillary or sometimes panicles, 10-30 cm, 2-6-flowered at each node. Pedicel 2-5 mm, hairy. Calyx ca. 2 mm, 4-lobed; lobes slightly longer than tube. Corolla green-white, 3-4 mm; standard obovate; wings oblong, base auriculate, shortly clawed; keel narrowly obovate, not auriculate. Ovary hairy. Legume linear, slightly curved, 1.2-2 × ca. 0.25 cm, lower suture deeply undulate, upper suture slightly constricted between seeds, hooked pubescent, 6-8-jointed. Fl. Apr-Aug, fr. Aug-Sep. 2n = 22.
Secondary forests, waste grasslands; 300-900 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Sichuan, SC Taiwan, S and SE Yunnan [Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Kashmir, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; tropical Africa, Australia, Pacific islands; naturalized in the West Indies].
