Japan Flora: Large ever­green glabrous shrub; branches gray-brown or grayish; leaves thick-coriaceous, elliptic or broadly ovate-elliptic, rarely ovate, 2-8(-10) cm. long, 25-4.5 cm. wide, entire, acute at both ends or sometimes subrounded at base, dark green and lustrous on upper side, yellow-green and obscurely punctulate beneath, the midrib impressed on upper side, often raised and reddish brown beneath, the petioles 5-12 mm. long; panicles pyrami­dal, 5-12 cm. long and as wide; corolla 5-6 mm. long, the tube as long as to slightly longer than the lobes; anthers oblong, L5-2 mm. long, filaments nearly as long as the corolla-lobes; styles exserted, 4-5 mm. long; fruit purple-black, ellipsoidal, 8-10 mm. long.  June. Woods and thickets in lowlands and hills.

Honshu (ceotr. distr. and westw.), Shikoku, Kyu­shu. A few cultivars of this plant are grown in gardens.

var. pubescens Koidz. Inflorescence and young branches puberulent. Occurs with the typical phase.

Var. crassifolium Hisauchi. Branchlets puberulent; leaves thicker, elliptic to sub- orbicular, 1-5 cm. long, 1-4 cm. wide, obtuse to very obtuse. Cultivated in our area, possibly spontaneous in the Ryukyus.

Var. rotundifolium Blume Shrub with puberulent branches; leaves ovate-elliptic to nearly orbicular, ratlier short- petioled, densely arranged on the branchlets; panicles narrow, very dense and interrupted, die axis puberulent, 3-6 cm. long, with very short branches; corolla-tube rather elongate; fila­ments short, the anthers shorter than the corolla-lobes.  Cultivated.