The plant is a small deciduous tree or large shrub up to 30 ft tall. It has smooth bark, dark green spreading branches and pendulous and pubescent twigs. The leaves are generally trifoliate and oval with long petioles, smooth on the upper side and hairy on the underside. It flowers during May and June.

Laburnum anagyroides blooms in late spring with pea-like, yellow flowers densely packed in pendulous racemes 4–10 in long. The flowers are golden yellow, sweet-scented, and typically bloom in May.

The seeds are legumes with large numbers of black seeds that contain cytisine, an alkaloid extremely poisonous to humans as well as goats and horses, especially when not ripe. However, some wild animals such as hares and deer can feed on them without any problems, and because of this, the plant is believed to have magic properties in some regions.

All parts of the plant contain cytisine and are poisonous if consumed.

It is short-lived and not heat tolerant. Its leaves alternate, long-stalked with 3 leaflets; flowers pea-like, golden, in long drooping clusters; fruit a long, flattened pod, sparsely branched; loses lower branches.

Sowing advice

These seeds have already been thoroughly cleaned and cold-stored for several months. They should be sown into well-drained, sandy compost at any time of the year, and covered to their own depth with sand or grit. No artificial heat is needed; the seed tray is best left in a cool spot outside and kept moist. Seeds usually germinate in the spring after a chilling in the cold compost, regardless of when they are sown.