Plant: Perennial (often flowering first season and seemingly annual), bushy-clumped, coarse, ± ill-scented, ± strigose; Stem ± erect, 1.5-6 dm, often hollow

Leaves: generally compound, alternate, stipuled, 5-16.5 cm, odd-1-pinnate; leaflets 9-19, 5-35 mm, ± obovate to round, flat, thick, tips notched

INFLORESCENCE: raceme, axillary; flowers 10-25, ascending or spreading

Flowers: bilateral; calyx 5-lobed, 7.6-12.3 mm; petals bright reddish purple, sometimes white, banner banner outside wings in bud, 21-28 mm, recurved ± 40 degrees, keel 17-21 mm; 9 filaments fused, 1 free; ovary (and fruit) generally sessile, style slender, stigma minute

Fruit: Fruit: legume, body 20-30 mm, 10-14 mm wide, inflated, ovate in side view, sparsely to densely strigose, with fine, net-like pattern, drying thickly papery; stalk-like base 1-1.5 mm, stout; beak erect or incurved, tipped by persistent style-base; sutures ± raised; chamber 1; Seeds 2-many, smooth, compressed, ± notched at attachment scar

Misc: Sandy or gravelly areas; 60-250 m.; Jan-Apr