Japan Flora: Dioecious shrub to 1.5 m. high, glabrous except for the pubernlous inflores­cence, the branches ascending, grayish; leaves often falsely verticillate, narrowly oblong to narrowly obovate, 6-12 cm. long inclusive of the short petioles, 25-3.5 cm. wide, abruptly acute and ending in an obtuse tip, gradually narrowed to the base, entire, lustrous on upper side, yellowish beneath; cymes 4-8 cm. across; flowers 4-merous, small, 5-6 mm. across, on puberulons pedicels; sepals and bracts minute, broadly tri- angnlar, minutely ciliate; petals narrowly oblong, 4-5 mm. long, with pellucid glands; stamens as long as the petals; fruit globose, about 7 mm. across, red, the style deciduous, 0.8 mm. long, with a somewhat capitate 4-fid stigma. Apr. Woods in mountains;

Honshu (Kanto Distr. and westw.), Shikoku, Kyushu; rather common. Ryukyus, Formosa, and ? China.

f. rugosa (Yatabe) Ohwi.  Nerves of leaves impressed on upper side.

f. repens (Nakai) Hara. The leaves flat. Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; common in mountains. Sakhalin and s. Kuriles.

 

Japan Flora: Low shrub with ascending branches often creeping at base; leaves with impressed nerves on upper side.  A rare variant first found in Sakhalin; also occurs in Hokkaido and Honshu (centr. & n. distr.)