It is a decidous large Shrub growing to 6 m (rarely to 10 m) tall, with a dense cluster of stems from the base. The bark is light brown, smooth, scaly, inner bark reddish purple. The branchlets are pubescent at first, later smooth, light orange brown, marked with occasional white dots, finally dark or reddish brown. The foliage buds are acute, slightly falcate, downy, light brown. The flowers are pale to bright yellow, rarely orange or reddish, with four ribbon-shaped petals 10–20 mm long and four short stamens, and grow in clusters; flowering begins in about mid-fall and continues until late fall. The fruit is a hard woody capsule 10–14 mm long, which splits explosively at the apex at maturity one year after pollination, ejecting the two shiny black seeds up to 10 m distant from the parent plant.