A deciduous shrub or bushy tree 15 to 25 ft high, young shoots shining dark brown, not downy, but prominently warted. Leaves thin, ovate or oval, occasionally rotund, 1 to 31⁄2 in. long, 1⁄2 to 11⁄2 in. wide, taper-pointed or blunt at the apex, dark green above, pale and glaucous beneath, usually glabrous, pinnately-veined; stalk 1⁄4 to 3⁄4 in. long. Flowers small, greenish yellow, produced in March and April in small short-stalked umbels about 1⁄2 in. in diameter. Fruits dry, 3⁄4 in. in diameter, reddish brown, marked with numerous pale dots. Bot. Mag., n.s., t.791.
Native of Japan and Korea. This lindera is fairly hardy at Kew, but only flowers well on a wall. It forms its umbels usually in pairs or threes during the summer; in the leaf-axils they remain through autumn and winter as little round knobs, bursting in the first warm days of spring. The leaves die off yellow.