A modern reference to temperate woody plants, including updated content from this site and much new material, can be found at Trees and Shrubs Online.

Lindera

Family

Lauraceae

A genus of about eighty species of evergreens or deciduous shrubs or trees, the majority from E. and S. Asia, but a few in eastern North America. Leaves alternate, aromatic. Flowers unisexual, male and female borne on separate plants in dense clusters (or singly in some species not described here). Each cluster is surrounded by an involucre with usually four bracts, which is folded over the flower-cluster in the bud-stage. Petals absent. Sepals usually six in number and petal-like. Anthers two-celled. Fruits (rarely seen in this country) fleshy, or becoming dry and splitting at maturity, containing a single stone.

Sargent remarked that in Japan the linderas make a notable feature in the shrubby growth of the hillsides and on the borders of streams and lakes.

Species articles