Shrubs or very rarely small trees. Stipules small, caducous or persistent and spinelike. Leaves paripinnate with rachis often extending beyond last leaflet pair or rachis reduced and leaves apparently digitate, 4-20-foliolate; petiole and rachis persistent or caducous, when persistent often becoming woody and spinelike; leaflet blades with margin entire, apex often cuspidate. Flowers axillary, usually solitary but sometimes 2-5 in a fascicle. Pedicel articulate; bracteoles absent or 1 to many. Calyx tubular or cam­panulate; teeth 5, adaxial 2 usually smaller, base saccate or not. Corolla yellow, rarely purple, pinkish, or white; standard sometimes pale yellow or orangish red; wings and keel often auriculate. Stamens diadelphous (9+1). Ovary subsessile, rarely with a distinct carpopodium; ovules many. Legume cylindric or compressed, sessile or rarely stipitate.

This genus is planted as an ornamental, as a hedge row, for soil and water conservation, for fuels, and for sand-dune stabilization.

About 100 species: temperate Asia, E Europe; 66 species (32 endemic) in China.

(Authors: Liu Yingxin (刘媖心 Liou Yingxin, Liu Ying-hsin), Chang Zhaoyang (常朝阳); Gennady P. Yakovlev)