Sophora is a genus of about 45 species of small trees and shrubs in the pea family Fabaceae. The species are native to southeast Europe, southern Asia, Australasia, and various Pacific islands, western South America, the western United States, Florida and Puerto Rico. The generic name is derived from sophera, an Arabic name for a pea-flowered tree.

Styphnolobium japonicum, synonymously known as Sophora japonica and commonly known as Japanese Pagoda Tree, is native to China and Korea, but not Japan. It is a medium to large deciduous tree that typically matures to 15 to 22 meters tall with a broad rounded crown. It is generally cultivated for its attractive compound foliage and fragrant late summer flowers. Pinnate leaves 25cm, each with 7-17 oval, lustrous, dark green leaflets, remain attractive throughout the growing season. Leaves retain green colour late into autumn. Small, fragrant, pea-like, creamy white flowers (each 1.5cm long) bloom in late summer in sweeping terminal panicles to 30cm long and to 30cm wide. Flowers fall to the ground around the tree after bloom covering the ground with a blanket of white. Flowers give way to slender, 1- to 6-seeded, knobby, bean-like pods (to 7.5-20cm long) that mature to brown in autumn and persist into winter. Although not native to Japan, the specific epithet and common name seem to recognize the early use of the tree in Japan around Buddhist temples. This tree is also commonly known as Chinese scholar tree.