A deciduous shrub 5 or 6 ft high, with brown slender branches furnished with starry down. Leaves narrowly oval-lanceolate, slenderly pointed, wedge-shaped at the base, inconspicuously toothed, 11⁄2 to 31⁄2 in. long, 1⁄2 to 1 in. wide, covered with a white, very close down beneath; stalk about 1⁄8 in. long. Flowers white, 3⁄4 in. wide, borne in May on erect, slender panicles 2 to 31⁄2 in. long, that terminate short lateral twigs carrying one or two pairs of leaves; petals oblong; calyx cup-shaped with short teeth.
Native of Japan; introduced in 1915. It is closely related botanically to D. scabra, differing from that well-known species in the long narrow leaves being white beneath (green in scabra) and in the more slender growths.