A species closely related to C. supinus, from which it differs in having the hairs of the stems, leaves and pods appressed; it is of more restricted range, occurring from Czechoslovakia and Hungary eastward to the Caucasus, while C. supinus extends westward as far as the Atlantic. It is usually represented in gardens by the following variety, which differs from the type in little but its more slender stems and narrower leaflets:
var. heuffelii (Griseb. & Schenk) Schneid. C. heuffelii Griseb. & Schenk; Chamaecytisus heuffelii (Griseb. & Schenk) Rothm. – A low, deciduous shrub with slender, erect, or arching branches covered with greyish appressed hairs. Leaves trifoliolate, with stalks 1⁄3 in. long; leaflets 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. long, 1⁄8 in. or less wide; linear oblong or linear obovate, covered with flattened hairs beneath; ultimately glabrous above. Flowers borne on the shoots of the year in a close terminal head, each 3⁄4 in. long, with narrow, yellow petals, and a very hairy calyx which extends two-thirds the length of the flower. Pod 1 in. long, 3⁄16 in. wide, covered with silky greyish hairs, and containing four to eight seeds.
Native of the Balkan peninsula and Danube basin. It has much the same garden value as C. supinus and should be pruned in the same manner.
Typical C. austriacus differs from the above in the following particulars: habit often procumbent; leaflets usually permanently hairy above; hairs of calyx spreading (appressed in var. heuffelii).