diff --git a/depends/README.md b/depends/README.md
index 633fc14d99..b8dc83bc96 100644
--- a/depends/README.md
+++ b/depends/README.md
@@ -106,6 +106,9 @@ The following can be set when running make: `make FOO=bar`
 - `NO_BDB`: Don't download/build/cache BerkeleyDB
 - `NO_SQLITE`: Don't download/build/cache SQLite
 - `NO_UPNP`: Don't download/build/cache packages needed for enabling UPnP
+- `ALLOW_HOST_PACKAGES`: Packages that are missed in dependencies (due to `NO_*` option or
+  build script logic) are searched for among the host system packages using
+  `pkg-config`. It allows building with packages of other (newer) versions
 - `NO_NATPMP`: Don't download/build/cache packages needed for enabling NAT-PMP
 - `MULTIPROCESS`: build libmultiprocess (experimental, requires cmake)
 - `DEBUG`: Disable some optimizations and enable more runtime checking