A deciduous tree, small in cultivation, and of slow growth; young branches without down, those of a year or two old usually packed closely with protuberances, which are the seats of the fallen leaves and buds. Leaves quite glabrous, normally in whorls of three, and densely crowded, but on free-growing shoots often alternate and well apart. Leaflets one to five (usually three), lance-shaped, tapered at the base, 1 to 4 in. long, 1⁄3 to 11⁄4 in. wide, coarsely and sharply toothed, glossy dark green. The whole leaf is from 4 to 8 in. long, the main-stalk and midribs whitish beneath, the former grooved above. Flowers produced in short racemes on the wood of the previous year. Fruits narrowly obovate, 1 to 11⁄2 in. long, 1⁄3 in. wide.
Native of south-west and central Asia. It is of little value as an ornamental, but is very distinct in the remarkably crowded leaves, and in the conspicuous protuberances on the younger branches. It is allied to F. oxycarpa but differs in the glabrous leaflets. F. angustifolia resembles F. syriaca in its glabrous, slender leaflets, but its leaves are not borne in whorls of three, are not so crowded, and have more numerous leaflets; it also grows taller.