An evergreen shrub 6 to 12 ft high; young shoots minutely downy. Leaves oval-lanceolate to oblong or narrowly obovate, slender-pointed, wedge-shaped at the base, sharply toothed with up to thirty to thirty-five teeth per side or entire, 21⁄2 to 41⁄2 in. long, 5⁄8 to 11⁄2 in. wide, of leathery texture, dark shining green above, paler and dotted beneath; stalk about 1⁄4 in. long. Flowers fragrant, produced in spring from four to nine in a cluster from the leaf-axils; corolla white, deeply four-lobed, 1⁄2 in. wide; flower-stalk 1⁄3 to 1⁄2 in. long, slender. Fruits 3⁄8 in. long, oblong, blue-black.
Native of W. China; discovered by Wilson in 1904, introduced to the Arnold Arboretum in 1910 and to Kew in 1912. It is hardy at Kew and has grown into a dwarf stiff bush 4 ft high, but gives the impression that it would prefer a warmer locality.