A deciduous, erect shrub of sparse hab:t, thickly covered with soft hairs in all its parts – branches, leaves, flowers, and pods. Branches leafy, but little forked, slender, erect, slightly furrowed. Leaves trifoliolate; leaflets linear, pointed, 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. long, 1⁄8 in. or less wide, margins slightly decurved. Flowers yellow, 1⁄2 in. long, in slender terminal racemes 4 to 6 in. long, each flower produced in the axil of a trifoliolate, leaflike bract, which becomes smaller towards the apex of the inflorescence. The growth of the year, including branch and raceme, will measure from 12 to 18 in. long. Pods short, thick, ovate, pointed, carrying one or two seeds.
Native of southern Yugoslavia around Niš; introduced to Kew in 1899. It has proved quite hardy, and is most distinct in its dense covering of short soft hairs.
This species is closely allied to G. sessilifolia DC., a species of wider distribution in S. Yugoslavia and extending into Bulgaria. It is not so densely hairy as G. nyssana and the leaflets are narrower.