Desmodium elegans is listed as Least Concern. It has a wide range, it is known to occur in protected areas and the population is believed to be stable at present.

Species widely distributed in temperate Asia, from China to Afghanistan, Bhutan, north eastern and south western India, Kashmir, Nepal and Pakistan.

The population size of the species is not known.

Desmodium elegans is a shrub which occurs in forest margins, forests, thickets, mountain slopes, rocky places, roadsides and ditches. Reported from dry grassy slopes in glades in deodar forests up to 2,700 meters (Gamble 1922).

There are no known major threats to this species.

The roots are carminative, diuretic and tonic (Manandhar 2002), they are used in the treatment of bilious complaints (Chopra et al. 1956).The juice of the root, sometimes combined with the bark juice of Bauhinia malabarica, is used in the treatment of cholera and the juice of the bark is used in the treatment of peptic ulcers (Manandhar 2002). A fibre from the bark is used for ropes and paper making and the wood is a good fuel (Gamble 1922).

It is known to occur in protected areas such as Canchengunja Conservation Area in Nepal and it has also been reported from Toorsa-Jigme Dorji Corridor, which links two adjacent protected areas, Toorsa Strict Nature Reserve, Jigme Dorji National Park, also in Nepal. Seeds have been collected as part of the Millennium Seed Bank project and by the US National Plant Germplasm System. It is known to occur in six Botanical Gardens. Cited on the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) Conservation Portal, which is part of the The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, ICIMOD.