Plants With Yellow Blooms & Long Thin Pods

Wildflowers

• Native to desert areas of the Western U.S. states, California poppy (Eschscholtzia californica) has bright yellow to orange flowers followed by a long, slender, erect seedpod filled with fine black seeds. There are cultivars with pink, red, cream and apricot flower colors. Hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 9 through 11, it is used as a garden annual in colder zones. Grown as a garden plant but naturalized into woodlands and roadsides of the Eastern U.S., greater celandine (Chelidonium majus) has four-petaled yellow flowers followed by erect slender green seedpods. It is hardy in USDA zones 4 through 8.

Vines

• Large yellow trumpet-shaped flowers appear in spring on cat's claw vine (Macfadyena unguis-cati). Growing 20 to 25 feet tall in USDA zones 9 through 11, plants have claw-like clinging tendrils and long brown seed pods containing winged seeds. Crossvine (Bignonia capreolata) has bell-shaped flowers that have yellow interiors and orange exteriors. Cultivars with more orange or red flower color exist. The semi-evergreen vine is hardy in USDA zones 5 through 9, with pods up to 6 inches long.

Trees

• A tidy small tree for USDA zones 10a through 11, golden trumpet tree (Tabebuia chrysotricha) blooms profusely during April and May when leaves have dropped. Showy trumpet-shaped bright yellow flowers are followed by 8-inch-long brown pods. For more temperate USDA zones of 4 through 8, yellow catalpa (Catalpa ovata) exhibits orchid-like yellowish-white 3/4-inch flowers in late spring. Slender, green, 16-inch-long seedpods ripen to brown, splitting open to release winged seeds.

Shrubs

• Yellow bells (Tecoma stans) is available in several varieties and grows in USDA zones 7 through 11, with variations depending on the cultivar. Most commonly seen as shrubs around 10 feet tall, bright yellow flowers occur in showy clusters at the ends of branches. Long string-bean-shaped pods are 4 to 8 inches long and ripen to release winged seeds. Native to the southwestern U.S., shrubby senna (Cassia wislizenii) grows 8 feet tall and 6 feet wide in USDA zones 7a through 10b. This deciduous shrub produces abundant yellow flowers in summer that attract butterflies and bees. Dark brown, 4-inch-long, thin, flattened seedpods contain rounded, brown seeds.