This species grows in Central Europe, Western Europe and Southern Europe (Belarus, Estonia, Lithuania, Russian Federation, Ukraine, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia; Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Bulgaria, Former Yugoslavia, Italy, Romania, France).

[2][3][4] These shrubs can be found in thickets, poor pastures, heaths and dry meadows, preferably on acidic soils, usually between 0–800 metres (0–2,625 ft), rarely up to 1,400 metres (4,600 ft) above sea level.

[2] These small perennial shrubs may have erect or prostrate stems, woody at the base, with robust simple or branched thorns.

The deciduous leaves are oval-lanceolate, bright green and pubescent.

The flowers, hermaphrodite, are gathered in short racemes, the calyx is pubescent with lanceolate teeth, the corolla is yellow.