Japan Flora: Shrub, the branches rather thick, obscurely 4-angled, densely appressed-strigose and with flattened whitish scalelike hairs; leaves somewhat coriaceous, oblong to ovate-elliptic, 5-12 cm. long, 2.5-6 cm. wide, acute, obtuse to rounded at base, entire, appressed-strigose on both sides, 5- to 7-nerved, the veinlets slender, parallel, the petioles 1-2 cm. long; flowers 3-7, terminal, 6-8 cm. across, rose-purple, the bracts lanceolate to narrowly ovate, caducous, slighdy shorter than the calyx-tube; calyx-tube urceolate-campanulate, 8-10 mm. long, the lobes 5, narrowly deltoid, acuminate, as long as the tube; anthers dimorphic, the larger ones about 1 cm. long, with the elongate portion of connective as long as the anther and shallowly bifid at the tip, the smaller ones 8-9 mm. long, the connective without an elongate portion; berry coriaceous, the upper half free, exserted, with flattened hairs. July-Aug.

Reported to occur in Kyushu (Yakushima); rare. Ryukyus, Formosa, China, and Indochina.