Rhizomatous perennial from subterranean caudex; stems few or several, to about 20 cm long, decumbent; herbage with short, stiff, spreading or incurved hairs 0.6-0.8 mm long; stipules connate; leaves 1.5-8 cm long; leaflets broad, glabrous or glabrate above; inflorescence usually included within foliage, elongating in fruit; flowers numerous, spreading, becoming declined; calyx 3-5 mm long, with mostly black or dark hairs; corolla 6.5-8 mm long, whitish, tinged with dull lilac; pods pendulous, subsessile, oblong, sometimes slightly curved, subterete, 8-15 mm long, 3.5-6 mm in diameter, bilocular or nearly so, persistent, dehiscent, valves papery, white-villosulous. Flowers April and May.