Japan Flora: Deciduous shrub with glabrous branches sparsely soft-puberulent when young; leaves obovate to oblong, 6-12 cm. long, 2.5-55 cm. wide, abruptly acuminate, rounded to obtuse at base, serrulate, pale green with raised veinlets and nerves beneath, the lateral nerves 6-10 pairs, ascending, inwardly curving near the margin, the peti­oles 8-15 mm. long, sparsely short-pubescent; cymes axillary, pilose, few-flowered, on short peduncles to 7 mm. long or sessile, the pedicels 5-10 mm. long; flowers about 5 mm. across; calyx-lobes narrowly deltoid, acute; fruit globose-obovoid, red­dish purple at first, black at maturity, about 6 mm. across, with 3 stones.     June-July. Wet places in mountains and hills. 

Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu. Korea and China.

var. yakushimensis Makino. Leaves narrow. Kyushu, Formosa.