Lotus berthelotii is an evergreen prostrate shrub[1] or subshrub, growing to 20 cm (7.9 in) with a creeping or trailing habit.

The flowers are orange-red to red, shaped like upward facing beaks on short stalks, but slender, 2–4 cm long and 5–8 mm broad.

[2] However, the cultivated population studied by Ollerton et al. (2008) set no fruit, despite the plants receiving large amounts of pollen on their stigmas.

This may be because the population was a single, self incompatible clonal genotype; whether this is true of all plants in cultivation is unknown, but may have important implications for the conservation of this species if it is extinct in the wild.

As it is intolerant of freezing temperatures, in cold temperate climates it requires the protection of glass in the winter months.