Japan Flora: Tufted or solitary, stiffly erect perennial, copiously branched above, 60-100 cm. high, sparsely white ap- pressed-pilose except the upper side of leaves; stems densely leafy; stipules lanceolate, 3-nerved; leaflets oblanceolate or cuneate, rounded to retuse, 7-25 mm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, with slightly incurved margins; chasmogamic flowers 6-7 mm. long, white with a purple blotch on the center of the standard, few, fasciculate in the leaf-axils; calyx 3-4 mm. long with narrowly lanceolate lobes; legumes ovate, as long as the calyx; cleistogamic flowers few, fasciculate in leaf-axils; calyx 1.5-2 mm. long; legumes nearly orbicular, about 3 mm. long, longer than the calyx. Aug.-Oct. Waste ground and grassy places in lowlands.

Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; common. Korea, Manchuria, China, Ryukyus) Formosa, to India and Australia.

var. serpens (Nakai) Ohwi.  Stems prostrate, branching, the branchlets thicker, spreading-pilose; leaflets thicker and broader; flowers with a purplish standard, the blotch at the center larger. Aug.-Oct. Common in grassy places and aban­doned lawns, especially abundant near the sea; Honshu, Kyu­shu. China.