Styphnolobium japonicum 'Gold Standard' at the US National Arboretum

If you like outrageously bright colors, and we know I do,you're going to want to grow this crazy yellow twigged tree. We got ours from Don Shadow who brought it back from Japan where it's commoner in commerce than it is here. It's only a matter of time though. I can imagine them flying out of a big box store by the dozens.

We planted ours two years ago. I'm thinking it's more than  doubled in size since then. It's a selected form of The Scholar Tree, which used to be Sophora japonica. now Styphnolobium japonicum. They're related to our native Black Locust, Robinia pseudoacacia, and grow at nearly the same rate. The color viridesces with spring so the tree is green most of the year. When cold weather returns the color comes with it so that now, when the winter sun hits it from a low angle, it glows.