Prostrate or tufted perennial herb; stems 5–50 cm long, often rooting at nodes, sparsely hairy to glabrous. Leaves palmately trifoliolate, long-petiolate; leaflets ovate, elliptic or obcordate, 5–30 mm long, 3–18 mm wide, somewhat glaucous, glabrous or hairy along nerves and margin, prominently veined particularly near margins, spinulose-toothed, apex obtuse or retuse; stipules membranous. Inflorescence 10–30-flowered, axillary, globose to semi-globose or ovoid, 8–20 mm long, 8–20 mm wide, pedunculate; flowers subsessile. Calyx at first c. 4 mm long, usually pilose to woolly on upper side, tube cylindric-obconical, 10–veined, teeth unequal, more or less the same length as tube, spiny, lower 3 teeth somewhat shorter than upper 2; corolla 6–8 mm long, white or pink, persistent; standard marginate or minutely crenate. Pod ovoid to globose, c. 2 mm long, included in inflated calyx tube;, calyx pilose or hispid, tube reticulately veined, teeth erect or recurved, throat narrowed, with a ring of hairs; seeds 1 or 2, reniform, c. 1 mm long, brown.  Flowers mainly Nov.–Apr.