E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

General:
Annual herb; stems prostrate to erect, 10-50 cm long/tall, glabrous or sparsely short-hairy.

Leaves:
Alternate, pinnately compound; leaflets 3, egg- to heart-shaped with wedge-shaped bases, 1-2.5 cm long, not blotched, short-hairy to glabrous, fine-toothed toward the tip; stipules narrowly egg-shaped, deeply cut into long teeth, 3-7 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of 2 to 5 pea-like flowers in a reduced, axillary raceme on a stalk shorter than the leaves, the racemes 4-8 mm long; corollas yellow, 3-5 mm long, the banner longer than the wings and keel; calyces bell-shaped, 3 mm long, the awl-shaped teeth slightly longer than the tube.

Fruits:
Pods, coiled in 2 to 5 spirals, forming a drum-shaped body about 5 mm in diameter, the margins with straight or hooked spines as much as 3 mm long, or occasionally spineless; seeds several.