Plants annual, erect, 5–50 cm, glabrous or sparsely hairy; branched.
Leaves palmate; leaflets 3, elliptic to oblong or obovate, 8–35 × 5–15 mm, bases cuneate, margins serrate proximally, obscurely denticulate distally, veins thickened, tips usually rounded or retuse, rarely acute, surfaces glabrous; petioles 10–130 mm; petiolules ~0.5 mm; stipules ovate-lanceolate, 10–15 mm, margins entire, sometimes ciliate, tips acuminate.
Inflorescences axillary or terminal, 10–30-flowered, ovoid becoming subglobose, 7–22 × 5–20 mm; involucres a narrow, membranous, dentate rim, ~0.5 mm; bracteoles linear or cup-shaped, ? 1 mm.
Peduncles 25–120 mm.
Pedicels erect but becoming reflexed, 0.5–6 mm.
Flowers 6–13 mm; calyces broadly campanulate, 5–11 mm, glabrous, veins 10, tubes 1–5 mm, lobes elliptic to linear, unequal, margins hyaline, markedly ciliate, dentate or pectinate, sinuses narrow, orifices open; corollas 5–13 mm, white, pink, or purple, banners broadly ovate, 6–13 × 4–7 mm, tips rounded, apiculate.
Fruits longitudinally dehiscent, ovoid, 5–10 mm, < 2 × as long as calyces; short-stipitate.
Seeds 1–2, ovoid, 2.5–3 mm, brown, mottled, smooth.
2n=16.
Oak-pine chaparral, meadows, roadsides. Flowering May–Jun. 50–800 m. Col, ECas, Sisk, WV. CA, WA; south to Mexico. Native.