1 Introduction Hedysarum L. (Fabaceae, Hedysareae) is a genus consisting of more than 160 species (Xu and Choi 2010). This genus has a temperate Northern Hemisphere distribution centered in Asia (Lock 2005; Xu and Choi 2010). Three sections of Hedysarum have been recognized mainly based on phylogenetic analyses, namely, H. sect. Hedysarum, H. sect. Stracheya (Benth.) B.H.Choi & H.Ohashi, and H. sect. Multicaulia (Boiss.) B.Fedtsch. (Duan et al. 2015; Liu, Wen, et al. 2017; Liu et al. 2019; Nafisi et al.