A deciduous shrub, the young shoots stellately hairy the first year, purplish brown the second. Leaves broad-elliptic or roundish ovate, long-pointed, truncate or slightly heart-shaped at the base, coarsely toothed, dark green and covered with loose stellate down above, paler and more downy beneath, 2 to 3 in. long, 11⁄4 to 21⁄4 in. wide, veins in six to eight pairs; leaf-stalk grooved, 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. long, densely downy; stipules narrowly lanceolate, downy. Corymbs about 2 in. wide, the main and secondary flower-stalks covered densely with stellate down; branches of the corymb usually five. Fruits egg-shaped, red, 1⁄3 to 2⁄5 in. long. Bot. Mag., n.s., t. 41.
Native of Hupeh and Szechwan, China; discovered by Henry; introduced by Wilson in 1908. It is nearly related to V. dilatatum (from which it differs in its orbicular-ovate leaves, and stipuled leaf-stalks), and to V. betulifolium, from which it is distinct in being downy on both leaf surfaces. As a fruiting shrub it is scarcely inferior to either. Award of Merit 1952.