Japan Flora: Much-branched erect shrub to 1 m. high, the young branchlets green, rather slender, curved-puberulent, obscurely 2-grooved; leaves slightly bitter in taste, membran이is, narrowly to broadly ovate, sometimes broadly lanceolate, 2-5 cm. long, 1-2.5 cm. wide, acuminate, usually rounded at base, serrulate, vivid green and sometimes redchsh, usually rounded at base, puberu¬lent especially the midrib on upper side, white-pubescent beneath near base; flowers 1-3, on shoots of last year, greenish to pinkish; calyx 5-toothed; berries obovoid-globose or subglo- bose, red. May. Thickets and pine woods in hills and low elevations in the mountains; Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; rather common and very variable. f. lasiocarpum (Koidz.) Ohwi. Prominentiy white-pubescent throughout.