Chamaecytisus ruthenicus

Chamaecytisus ruthenicus, the Russian broom, is a low deciduous shrub of the legume family Fabaceae, native to the steppes, open pine forests and rocky slopes of eastern Europe, the Caucasus, southern Siberia and Central Asia. Plants reach 60 to 150 centimetres in height with erect to spreading, ribbed or angled green stems that are softly hairy when young. The leaves are alternate and trifoliolate, the leaflets oblanceolate to elliptic, 1.5 to 3 centimetres long, entire-margined, and pubescent on both surfaces, especially beneath. Flowers are bright yellow and papilionaceous, about 2 to 2.5 centimetres long, borne in dense terminal and upper-axillary clusters in late spring and early summer. The standard petal is often paler at the base, and the keel is hairy along the lower margin. Fruits are flat, linear-oblong, densely silky-hairy pods 2 to 3 centimetres long containing several small dark seeds.