A deciduous shrub 4 or 5 ft high, with angled branches. Leaves in two opposite rows, pinnate, composed usually of seven leaflets; leaflets obovate, 1⁄4 to 3⁄4 in. long, with a few appressed hairs or quite glabrous. Flowers borne in an umbel at the end of a stalk 2 to 3 in. long, with from four to eight (more often five) flowers in the umbel; each flower 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. long. Petals yellow, with a long claw; calyx 1⁄8 in. long, cup-shaped. Pod 2 to 3 in. long, slender, round and jointed, each segment containing one seed.
Native of Greece, Crete, and other parts of S. E. Europe, also Syria. It is nearly allied and very similar to the well-known C. emerus, in habit, leaf, colour and shape of flower. But it is distinguished by having seven instead of nine as the usual number of leaflets, by its longer-stalked umbels, and by the more numerous flowers in each. It commences to flower in May or June, and continues for several months.