A deciduous half-shrubby species 11⁄2 to 2 ft high, with very glandular-hairy, zigzag stems; the leaf-stalk, flower-stalk, and calyx are also glandular-hairy. Leaves trifoliolate, 1 to 3 in. long; leaflets roundish, sometimes obovate, the terminal one the largest, stalked, and 1⁄4 to 11⁄4 in. long, side ones half to two-thirds as large, stalkless; all are toothed and hairy, especially below and on the margins. Flowers 3⁄4 in. long, pink, produced from the axils of the leaves, three together towards the end of a stalk 1⁄2 to 21⁄2 in. long. Pods very hairy, 1 to 11⁄4 in. long. Bot. Mag., t. 335.
Native of S. and Central Europe; cultivated for more than three hundred years in England. Increased by seeds.