Japan Flora: Perennial herb, 60-120 cm. high, ligneous at base, thinly pilose, remotely leafy throughout; stipules linear to lanceolate, 3-7 mm. long, long-acuminate; leaflets 3, thin, acute, paler beneath, the terminal ovate to broadly so, 4-8 cm. long, 2.5-4 cm. wide, broadly cuneate at base, the lateral slighdy smaller; racemes loosely flowered, to 30 cm. long, often slightly branched at base, the bracts deciduous; flowers 3-4 mm. long; calyx-teeth short; legumes on a stipe 2-8 mm. long, the joints 1-3, broadly semi-obovate, 4-7 mm. long, minutely pubescent on both surfaces. July-Oct. Woods and thickets in lowlands.
Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku,Kyushu; common. Korea and China to N. India.