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General:
Slender, small tree to 7 m tall; stems branched, often near the ground, the branches erect or spreading, the bark smooth, brownish-green; twigs appressed-hairy, greyish-green.
Leaves:
Alternate, deciduous, palmately compound; leaflets 3, elliptic-egg-shaped, rounded but abruptly sharp-pointed at the tip, 3-7 cm long, downy beneath, grey-green turning yellow in the fall.
Flowers:
Inflorescence a terminal, stalked, drooping raceme of numerous pea-like flowers, the racemes 10-20 cm long, the flower stalks silky-hairy; corollas yellow, about 2 cm long; calyces 2-lipped, with short teeth.
Fruits:
Pods, narrowly elliptic, flattened, drooping from a stalk, 3-7 cm long, segmented, appressed-hairy, persistent on trees through winter; seeds several, ejected by explosive splitting of the pod, highly poisonous. vol3_3
Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
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