A deciduous shrub 10 to 12 ft high; young shoots covered with yellowish grey, bristly hairs, becoming glabrous and greyish the second year. Leaves oval to ovate, slender-pointed, usually wedge-shaped (sometimes rounded) at the base; 11⁄2 to 4 in. long, 3⁄4 to 13⁄4 in. wide; dull green and soon glabrous above, sparsely hairy beneath, more so on the midrib and veins; margins downy; veins in three to six pairs, the blade often puckered between them; stalk woolly, 1⁄6 in. or less in length. Corymbs three- to seven-flowered, on a stalk about 1⁄2 in. long, and hairy like the young wood; flowers 1⁄3 in. wide; petals rose-tinted white; calyx tube woolly, the lobes triangular and woolly only on the margins. Fruit red, finally black, roundish, 1⁄4 to 1⁄3 in. wide, carrying usually three or four nutlets.
Native of W. Hupeh, China; introduced by Wilson in 1908. The foliage turns to bright scarlet and orange in autumn. The allied C. moupinensis (q.v.) also bears black fruits, but its inflorescences are many-flowered and its leaves have a strongly impressed venation.