An evergreen shrub probably 10 or 12 ft high, of dense, spreading, bushy habit; branches rather rigid, horizontal, often spine-tipped, covered the first year with a thick, grey down. Leaves narrow oblong or slightly obovate, rounded or tapered at the base, rounded at the apex with a minute tip or slight notch there; the larger leaves have a few minute dark stiff teeth near the apex, the smaller ones mostly entire; they are 1⁄2 to 21⁄4 in. long, 1⁄8 to 1⁄2 in. wide, glabrous, dark green above, covered beneath with a grey felt; stalk 1⁄12 to 1⁄4 in. long. Flowers white, 1⁄4 in. across, in corymbs 2 in. wide, of little beauty; calyx and flower-stalk felted. Fruits brilliant orange-yellow when ripe, covered with grey down when young, 1⁄4 to 3⁄8 in. in diameter, much flattened at the top; seeds five. Bot. Mag., t. 8345.
Native of W. China; introduced to Kew by Lieut. Jones in 1899, and again a few years later through M. de Vilmorin. I saw it in great beauty at Les Barres in 1908, loaded with fruit, and the whole plant much more woolly than it is in Great Britain. After the hot summer of 1911, a plant on a wall at Kew bore fruit very freely. A later introduction of this species by Forrest has proved hardier than the first ones and they can be grown in the open. Its round-ended, nearly or quite entire leaves, and dense woolliness readily distinguish it from the other species. It is valuable in retaining its berries in full beauty until March, long after those of of P. coccinea have fallen.