Lotus arabicus Sol. ex L., it is an annual herb with few to many stems from the base. Stems spreading or erect, usually up to 65 cm long, rarely more, and up to 4.5(6) mm in diameter, yellowish, pilose with spreading or arching hairs. Leaves usually well-spaced, 5-foliolate. Leaf rachis 2-8.5 mm long, rather broad, leaflets all similar, up to 29 x 16 mm, cuneate-obovate, obtuse to truncate at the apex, the lateral ones often inserted on the rachis at different levels, pilose on both surfaces, the indumentum similar to that on the stem and branches. Umbels 1-3(4)-flowered; peduncle up to 50 mm long, foliage leaf on the peduncle 1-foliolate, or sometimes 2-3-foliolate; glands (bracts) at the base of the pedicels usually small, sometimes inconspicuous, pedicels 2-3 mm long. Hypanthium 1-1.3 mm, calyx tube 1.5-2.2 mm above the insertion of the stamens. Calyx lobes 5-6 mm long, becoming 7-7.5 mm long in fruit, narrowly triangular or subulate. Corolla pink, sometimes with purple blotches or stripes, or sometimes reddish or purplish, standard c. 8 mm long, oblong-obovate, wedge-shaped at the base, the margins thickened and infolded near the base; wings 7-7.5 mm long with a narrow claw 2-2.2 mm long, the limb oblong, auriculate, keel as long as the wings, curved, pouched at the sides, the claws 2 mm long, free. Filament sheath c. 4 mm long; free parts of the shorter filaments ± two-thirds as long as those of the longer ones. Ovary c. 5 mm long, c. 22-23-ovulate, glabrous; style 3.5-4 mm long, the tip incurved. Pods 23-36 x 3-3.5 mm, terete to sub torulose, purplish-red, glabrous. Seeds usually c. 18, sometimes less, rarely more, elliptic to ± kidney-shaped, brown, usually mottled.
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