This plant occurs in Turkey, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Switzerland, Albania, Bulgaria, former Yugoslavia, Greece, Italy, Romania and France. Its legumes (seed pods) are 25–40 millimetres (0.98–1.57 in) long, very hairy and mature in late Summer.
The flowering period extends from April through June. The flowers are initially orange-yellow, then tend to be colored with reddish brown. The small deciduous leaves are trifoliate, ovate to elliptic, hairy on both sides, 18–25 millimetres (0.71–0.98 in) long, with a petiole. The stem is more or less ascendent, woody in the lower part, branched, with ascending annual and herbaceous branches ( suffruticose) with hairs 3 millimeters long (hence the Latin name hirsutus of this species, meaning hairy).
