Typically from the Mediterranean, these relatives of Genista produce yellow pea-like flowers, sometimes scented, on shrubs or herbaceous perennials. Coronilla have pinnate leaves, whilst Genista have trifoliate leaves.
As with most pea flowers, those of Coronilla are much used by visiting insects. Particularly the midwinter flowers are renowned as one of the better sources of out-of-season forage for bumblebees and honeybees roused from their winter slumber, although C. valentina is not native its establishment on a few sea cliffs in the south of the country is not seen as of environmental concern.