Shrubs to 1.5 m tall. Bark dark brown, greenish brown, or yellowish brown. Branchlets arched. Leaves digitate, 4-folio­late; petiole 1-1.2 cm and persistent on long branchlets, 5-10 mm and caducous on short branchlets; leaflet blades obovate to linear, 6-13 × 2-3 mm, abaxially sparsely pilose, base narrowly cuneate, apex acute. Flowers solitary. Pedicel 3-4 mm, articu­late basally. Calyx tube campanulate, 7-10 mm. Corolla yellow, 1.8-2.3 cm; standard broadly ovate, claw shorter than limb, apex obtuse; wings oblong, claw slightly longer than limb, auri­cle linear and ca. 1/3 as long as claw; keel with claw ± as long as limb, auricle small. Ovary glabrous. Legume cylindric, 3-3.5 cm × 3-4 mm, glabrous. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Aug. 2n = 16*.

● Dry slopes in mixed woodlands; 1700-4000 m. Gansu, Qinghai, W Sichuan, Xinjiang, NW Yunnan.