A deciduous shrub 10 ft or more high, with long, slender young branches covered with down when young, but becoming bare towards the end of the summer, and of a very dark brown. Leaves roundish oval, or broadly ovate, 1 to 21⁄2 in. long, 3⁄4 to 13⁄4 in. broad, rounded at the base; the apex pointed, rounded, or even notched, but nearly always ending in a short bristle-like tip; dark green and sparsely hairy above when young, covered with pale greyish felt beneath; stalk 1⁄4 in. or less long. Flowers white, in corymbs of five to twelve; calyx covered with a grey felt. Fruit black, roundish, about 1⁄4 in. diameter.
Native of the north-western Himalaya; introduced in 1824. This is one of the taller and stronger-growing species, and was often grown in gardens as “C. nummularius”. The true C. nummularius of Fischer is treated here as a variety of C. racemiflorus.