Rounded tree to 10 m or so tall. Leaves deciduous, 15-25 cm long. Leaflets 7-17, mostly lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, entire, to about 3.5 cm long. Flowers 25-35 cm long; summer. Flowers to about 1.5 cm long, cream. Fruit pods 6-8 cm long, beadlike. Syn. Styphnolobium japonicum Schott.

China, Korea.

The wood, bark and flowers produce a yellow dye.

VIC: Footscray (Park, below lake); Geelong (Bot. Gds, c.12 m tall; avenue tree in street opposite Geelong College Preparatory School). NSW: Ournie (Jephcott Arboretum); Wellington (Park).

Santamour &Riedel (1997).

Source: Spencer, R. (2002). Fabaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press. (as Sophora japonica)