A shrub 3 ft or more high; young shoots glabrous. Leaves oval-lanceolate, tapered at the base, slenderly pointed, 2 to 4 in. long, 1⁄2 to 1 in. wide, upper surface beset with rather scattered starry scales, the lower one grey, densely clothed with much smaller scales, and furnished with simple hairs along the chief veins. Flowers pure white, produced in May and early June in dense, rounded, corymbose panicles about 2 in. across. Petals 1⁄3 in. long, reflexed at the margins; wings of the stamens distinctly bilobed at the top; calyx-lobes narrow-oblong, persistent; calyx and flower-stalks scaly.
Native of Central China; discovered and introduced by Wilson in 1901. It is very pretty about the beginning of June, the previous year’s stems being then loaded with the numerous flower-clusters. It is allied to D. vilmoriniae, and has the same fringe of simple hairs along the midrib and veins, but the flower-stalks are shorter, the inflorescence more crowded, the flowers smaller; the reflexed margins of the petals are also very distinctive.