Japan Flora: Glabrous, dioecious, low shrub; branchlets 8-15 cm. long, deciduous; leaves alternate, elliptic or ovate, 2-4.5 cm. long, 1-2.5 cm. wide, obtuse to broadly so, rounded at base, entire, smooth, vivid green to glaucous on upper side, glaucous or whitish beneath, the petioles 2-3 mm. long; flowers about 35 mm. across, the staminate short-pedi­cellate; sepals 4, rounded, dark reddish; disc annular; stamens 2, rarely 3, the anthers ellipsoidal, longitudinally dehiscent; pistillate flowers pale green, the pedicels 1-1.5 cm. long, grad­ually thickened on upper part; sepals 3, deciduous, elliptic; fruit depressed globose, about 6 mm. across, becoming berry­like when mature; styles connate and short-cylindric, deeply 3-lobed, the stigma entire; seeds about 3 mm. long. May. Thickets in mountains

Honshu (Kinki Distr. and westw.), Shikoku, Kyushu. China