A shrub of erect habit up to 6 ft high; young wood nearly glabrous, pale brown; bark peeling the second year. Leaves ovate-lanceolate or ovate, with a usually short, slender point, tapered at the base, sharply toothed, 11⁄2 to 4 in. long, 1⁄2 to 13⁄4 in. wide; dull green and sprinkled over with minute starry down above; paler, glossy green, and almost glabrous beneath. Flowers white, 1⁄2 in. across, produced in corymbs 2 or 3 in. across; petals imbricate in the bud. Wings of stamens variable, sometimes none, sometimes a proportion toothed.
Native of the Amur region and Korea, where it may be said to represent D. corymbosa, to which species it is most nearly allied in botanical characters, but distinct in its smaller leaves with more open teeth and fewer-rayed (four to nine) hairs. In low-lying districts it is of little value owing to its susceptibility to injury by late frosts, but pretty in continental gardens, where it is not excited so early into growth as with us.
D. amurensis differs from D. parviflora, with which it has been confused, by the leaves being more noticeably discolorous and lacking the simple hairs on the lower surface which are a feature of that species. There is also a difference in geographical distribution, D. parviflora being a native of Hopeh and Chengtu, while D. amurensis occurs farther to the north-east. Whether the true D. parviflora is in cultivation in Britain it is impossible to say, but the specimens from garden plants in the Kew Herbarium are D. amurensis. It should be added that the deutzia called D. parviflora which Lemoine used as the seed-parent of D. × lemoinei was probably D. amurensis.