Perennial herbs, glabrous or glabrescent. Stems few to sev­eral from crown, erect or ascending, 15-60 cm, ridged verti­cally. Leaves palmately 3-foliolate; stipules ovate to ovate-lanceolate, base fused for ca. 1/3 of length, free blade long acu­minate, tip subulate; petioles very long in lower leaves, grad­ually reduced in upper leaves; petiolule 1-1.5 mm; leaflets broadly elliptic to ovate-elliptic or obovate, 1-3 × 1-2 cm, lat­eral veins 15-20 pairs, base broadly cuneate, margins entire to serrulate, apex obtuse (rarely emarginate). Flowers 10-50, in axillary and terminal, globose umbels, 1-2.5 cm; peduncle longer than adjacent leaves; involucre absent; bracts lanceolate, 0.5-1 mm; pedicels 3-5 mm, reflexed after anthesis. Calyx with 5 major and 5 minor veins; teeth subulate, 1-2 × length of tube. Corolla pink to white, 7-10 mm; standard elliptic, longer than wings and keel. Ovary linear; ovules 2. Legume elliptic. Seeds 2, brown to reddish, ovoid, tuberculate. Fl. and fr. Jun-Oct.

Cultivated, escaped, and naturalized; forest margins, grasslands, roadsides. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Xinjiang [native to SW Asia and Europe; cultivated worldwide].