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C. decapetala is a robust and sprawling shrub or climber 0.5-10 m tall, with numerous straight to hooked thorns on the stems. Bipinnately compound leaves are dark green above, paler beneath, up to 30 cm long, with deciduous stipules 8-20 mm long. The leaf rachis is armed with downwardly hooked prickles. Each leaf consists of 3-15 pairs of pinnae, each pinna having 5-12 pairs of leaflets, elliptic-oblong to ovate, rounded at the apex, 10-22 mm long, 4-11 mm wide. Flowers are pale yellow, 25-30 mm diameter, borne in axillary and terminal racemes 10-40 cm long, petals 10-15 cm long and 8-15 mm wide. Fruits are dehiscent pods 6-11 cm long, 2-3 cm wide, containing 4-9 black ellipsoid, flattened, black seeds 8-12 mm long and 6-8 mm wide.

C. decapetala is very widely distributed in South and East Asia, approximately from the equator to 40 N. This species grows naturally in tropical and temperate regions from the Himalayas to Sri Lanka, and the native range extends east to China, Korea and Japan. C. decapetala has been widely cultivated and is now naturalized in tropical and subtropical regions in Africa, Australia, the Caribbean and on several islands in the Pacific Ocean (see distribution table for details).