A deciduous tree up to 25 ft high, with a trunk 2 ft in girth, but often a bush 6 ft or more high; young shoots glabrous. Leaves pinnate, about 8 in. long; leaflets nine to seventeen, oval or ovate, rounded or broadly wedge-shaped at the base, 11⁄2 to 2 in. long, 5⁄8 to 7⁄8 in. wide, rather downy when young, becoming glabrous; stalk of leaflet 1⁄8 to 3⁄16 in. long. Flowers white, 3⁄8 in. long, produced on a panicle made up of slender racemes 2 to 3 in. long, on which they are closely packed; calyx bell-shaped, scarcely toothed, finely downy. Pods 11⁄2 to 13⁄4 in. long.
Native of Quelpaert Island, Korea; discovered by the Abbé Faurie in 1907 at an altitude of 3,700 ft. E. H. Wilson collected seeds on the island in 1917, which represent its first introduction to cultivation. It flowers there in August at the end of leafy shoots. Introduced to Kew in 1922.