General: Perennial herb from a strong taproot and branching stem-base; stems few to several, tufted, sometimes virtually lacking, decumbent to erect, hairy, 3-30 cm long/tall.
Leaves: Basal and alternate along the stem, odd-pinnately compound, 4-20 cm long; leaflets 15 to 41, egg-shaped to lance-oblong, 3-20 mm long, sparsely to densely soft-hairy on both surfaces or glabrous above; stipules leaf-like, lanceolate, 6-15 mm long, fused to the leaf-stalk for only 1-3 mm.
Flowers: Inflorescence a stalked, compact to elongate raceme of 5 to 25 pea-like flowers, the racemes 5-15 cm long on stalks (2) 5-25 cm long; corollas white, pinkish, bluish or purple, 6-10 mm long; calyces bell-shaped, 3-8 mm long, dark stiff-hairy, the teeth narrowly lanceolate and about as long as the tube; flowers at first upright but soon nodding and often disposed to one side of the raceme.
Fruits: Pods, drooping, oblong-ellipsoid, dark short-hairy, 8-25 mm long including a short stalk to 1-3 mm long, 1-chambered.
Moist to mesic, often sandy or gravelly meadows, river bars, grassy slopes, thickets and open forests from the montane to alpine zones; frequent in BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; amphiberingian, N to AK, YT and NT, E to Labr. and S to CO, NM and OR; Siberia.
