The shrub has an upright habit with arching branches and grows to 3 to 4 metres high.

[2] The opposite leaves turn yellowish or occasionally purplish in the autumn before falling.

[3] The bright yellow flowers are produced on one- to two-year-old growth and may be solitary or in racemes from 2 to 6.

[4] A plant of seedling origin was discovered growing in the Göttingen Botanical Garden in Germany by the director of the Royal Prussian Academy of Forestry in Münden, H. Zabel in 1878.

Cultivars include (those marked agm have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit):[6] The first dirigent protein was discovered in Forsythia intermedia.