Korea Flora: Description: Deciduous shrub to 1.5m tall. Winter buds lanceolate. Branches with solid white pith, initially with hairs and glandular hairs becoming glabrous.Leaves opposite, elliptic-lanceolate (willow-like), (3)4-7 × 1.5-2(3)cm; apex acuminate or obtuse; both surfaces glabrous; margins entire, nearly glabrous; abaxially tomentose below, white-hairy along midrib; lateral veins 7-9 pairs; petioles 2-5mm long, glabrous.Flowers in axils of new shoots; peduncles very long, 10-28mm. Bracts 1mm long, shorter than bracteoles, deciduous, margins glandular. Corolla red, 8-10mm long, zygomorphic.Fruit ovaries fused below middle; fruit globose, 6-8mm in diameter, black.

Flowering June;
Fruiting late August to mid-September.
Distribution: Northeastern China; North and South Hamgyeong-do, Gangwon-do (Mt. Taebaek, Mt. Odae), Jeju Island.
Taxonomic notes: L. nigra var. barbinervis Kom., described from specimens collected near Yalu River, is considered a variant of L. alba based on specimen examination.