Laburnum anagyroides is a small deciduous tree or large shrub from the bean family, growing to thirty feet at maturity with a spread to match. The smooth bark and dark green spreading branches carry pendulous clusters of pea-like yellow flowers in May and June, fragrant and brief and extraordinary. The trifoliate leaves are smooth above and softly hairy beneath. It is a tree from the mountain regions of central and southern Europe, and that provenance tells you something important about where it will and will not thrive: it dislikes the heat and humidity of the American South and performs best in zones 5 through 7 where summers are moderate.

Golden chain tree does best in organically rich, well-drained soil in full sun, though it tolerates partial shade. Drainage is critical. The plant is short-lived by tree standards, and every part of it, particularly the seedpods, is poisonous, so removing the pods after flowering is both prudent and worth wearing gloves for. Twig blight, canker, aphids, and mealybugs can appear, but for a gardener in the right climate, the May flowering is a genuine event, the sort of thing that stops people on the street to ask what the tree is.