Adenocarpus decorticans Boiss.

A deciduous shrub of rather gaunt habit, sending out long horizontal branches, and reaching 8 to 10 ft in height in this country. Leaves trifoliolate, very crowded, 1 in. or less long; stalk very slender and downy, 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. long. Leaflets 1⁄3 to 3⁄4 in. in length, 1⁄16 in. wide, the margins usually rolled inwards. Flowers golden yellow, about the size and shape of common gorse, produced on the upper side of the branches in short, erect racemes, 11⁄2 to 21⁄2 in. long. Seed-pods 11⁄2 to 2 in. long, 1⁄3 in. wide, pale, covered with conspicuous viscid glands. Bot. Mag., n.s., t. 48.

Native of Spain, and only really hardy in the milder parts of Great Britain. At Kew it needs the protection of a wall, but has been grown in the open no farther from London than Grayswood Hill near Haslemere, where shrubs 6 to 8 ft high were laden in May and early June with golden blossom from end to end of their branches, making most gorgeous pictures. Like so many of its race, this shrub is not long-lived, and care should be taken to sow a few seeds occasionally (it produces them in great abundance), to renew the stock if needed. It should have the sunniest position available, and is suitable for a hot bank in gardens where it can thrive in the open. For colder localities a place on a south wall is necessary.