Plants perennial straggling herbs uto 70 cm long. Leaf rachises up to 4(-6) cm long, including the peioles of up to 1(02) cm; leaflets 3-7, cuneate=-elliptic or obovate, up to 25(-45) mm long, and 12(-23) mm wide, both surfaces pubescent. Flowers purple, in short, open, terminal and axillary racemes. Calyces pubescent 4-5 mm long, withtriangular-acuminate lobes 2-3 mm long; banner petals grey pubescent externally, 9-11 mm long; styles glabrous, 3-4 mm long, twisted, with penicillate tips. Pods upcurved near the tip, 4-5 cm long, 0.4-0.45 sm wide, shortly and stiffly pubescent; seeds 9-12, thombic, about 2.5-3 mm long.
Tephrosia lortii grows in bushland and on rocky ground at 1100-1650 m. It is known only from region N1 of the Flora of Somalia but it is also known from Ethiopia, Kenya, and northern Tanzania.