An evergreen shrub or small tree; young wood covered with reddish brown down. Leaves pinnate, 3 to 5 in. long, composed of six and a half to twelve and a half pairs of leaflets, which are 3⁄4 to 11⁄2 in. long, 1⁄4 to 3⁄8 in. wide, covered beneath and more or less above with reddish brown down. Flowers in short axillary racemes, yellow, 1 to 11⁄4 in. long. Calyx 1⁄4 in. long, bell-shaped, shallow-toothed, covered with down like that of the leaves. Pods downy, 4 in. or more long, 1⁄2 in. thick where the seeds are enclosed, but much constricted between them; not winged, but thickened at the seams. Bot. Mag., t. 8647.
Native of central Chile; introduced in 1822. This species is nearly akin to, and very much resembles the larger-leaved forms of S. tetraptera. It always differs from them, however, in having no wings to the pods, the flowers are not so large, and the leaves are pretty uniformly of the dimensions given above. It is not quite hardy at Kew, but thrives very well in more favoured localities.