Description from
Flora of China
Hedysarum lagopodioides Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 1198. 1753; Doodia lagopodioides (Linnaeus) Roxburgh; Lespedeza lagopodioides (Linnaeus) Persoon.
Herbs, prostrate or spreading, to 60 cm tall. Leaves mostly 3-foliolate, rarely 1-foliolate; petiole 1-2 cm; terminal leaflet blade nearly orbicular or elliptic to ovate, 2-6 × 1.5-3 cm, abaxially gray-yellow pubescent, base rounded or cordate, apex rounded or emarginate. Racemes terminal, 3-6 cm, densely flowered. Pedicel ca. 4 mm, sparsely white villous. Calyx 5-parted; lower lobes ca. 2 × as long as upper ones, white villous. Corolla pale purple, ca. 6 mm; standard obovate, base attenuate. Ovary glabrous, 1- or 2-ovuled. Legume enclosed by calyx, black-brown at maturity, small; articles 1 or 2, elliptic, ca. 2.5 mm, swollen, glabrous, slightly lucid. Fl. and fr. Aug-Oct. 2n = 22.
The whole plant is used medicinally for relieving swelling. It also is used as a pesticide.
"Hedysarum lagopoides" (N. L. Burman, Fl. Indica, 168. 1768) is here treated as an orthographical variant of H. lagopodioides Linnaeus.
Open waste slopes, thickets; below 1000 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Yunnan [Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia, Pacific islands].
