Japan Flora: Shrub with spreading glabrous branches; leaves membranous, ovate, 4-6 cm. long, 2-4 cm. wide, acuminate, rounded at base, acutely double-toothed, more or less long- appressed yellowish pubescent beneath, the petioles 2-3 mm. long; flowers 3-4 cm. across, on pedicels 7-20 mm. long; calyx and pedicels pubescent, the lobes narrowly ovate, 1-1.5 cm. long, the bracts of the caliculus linear to lanceolate, 4-8 mm. long; achenes 7-8 mm. long, ellipsoidal, glabrous. Apr.-May.

Honshu (Chugoku Dktr.); often cultivated. Korea and China.

 

Korea Flora: Deciduous shrub, 2m tall. Branchlets glabrous. Leaves opposite, ovate or oblong-ovate, acuminate apex, rounded base, 4-8cm × 2-4cm, sharply doubly serrate; upper surface dark green, heavily wrinkled, lower surface light green, sericeous (silk-like hairs). Petioles 3-5mm long; stipules slender, early deciduous. Flowers solitary at the tips of new shoots, 3-5cm in diameter. Calyx flat, with 4 narrow-ovate lobes, serrate margins, alternating with 4 smaller outer calyx lobes; petals 4, white, nearly orbicular. Numerous stamens, short; carpels 4. Fruits ellipsoid nuts, 8mm long, maturing within the persistent calyx, glossy black.

Chromosome number: 18.
Flowering: Late June to early August (early May in Jeollanam ).
Fruiting: Mid-August to late October.
Distribution: Liaoning, Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Hubei, Shaanxi (China); southern Honshu (Japan); limited distribution along coastal areas of Hwanghae , Gyeonggi , and Jeollanam/buk s (Korea). Recently widely cultivated as an ornamental plant.