Cytisophyllum sessilifolium

Cytisophyllum sessilifolium is a deciduous Mediterranean shrub of the Fabaceae family, the sole species in its genus, native to eastern Spain, southern France, and Italy. It typically grows one to two metres tall with an upright, much-branched habit and slender, leafy, smooth green stems that contrast with the woody, grey-barked older branches. The alternate leaves are diagnostic: each is a stalkless, sessile, trifoliate leaf bearing three small, obovate, blue-green leaflets crowded directly along the stem. In late spring and early summer the plant produces abundant axillary clusters of bright yellow, fragrant pea-flowers about a centimetre long, in short racemes of two to six. The fruit is a small, flattened, oblong, hairless pod containing several glossy seeds. The species favours dry open woodland edges and rocky slopes on calcareous soils.