Japan Flora: Evergreen shrub; branchlets densely brown-scaly, frequently reduced to spines; leaves coriaceous, oblong to narrowly so, 8 cm. long, 2.5-35 cm. wide, obtuse to acute with an obtuse tip, rounded at base, obsoletely toothed with prominently un¬dulate margins, glabrous and lustrous on upper side, densely whitish and usually also brown-scaly beneath; petioles 10-12 (-15) mm. long, brown-scaly; flowers few, fasciculate in axils, the pedicels 5-8 mm. long, brown-scaly; calyx-tube 6-7 mm. long, rather thick, abruptly narrowed at base, the lobes ovate- rounded, about half as long as the tube; fruit oblong, about 15 cm. long, brown-scaly. Oct-Nov. Thickets in lowlands especially near the sea;

Honshu (centr. distr. and westw.), Shikoku, Kyushu; common.