Medium to tall straggling plant, with 4 to 6 pairs of leaflets, oval to elliptical, blunt but often with a tiny point. Flowers are pale cream or yellowish green 11 to 15 mm long in dense, short-stalked racemes.  The long curved seed-pods are very distinctive.

In leaf, goat's-rue and crown vetch are similar (but with very different flowers)

Rough grassy habitats.

June to August.

Perennial

Widespread in Britain but rather uncommon.

Rare in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 6 of the 617 tetrads.