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

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia