A deciduous shrub 2 to 8 ft high with downy and hairy, glandular young shoots. Leaves oval to ovate, very variable in size from 3⁄4 to 2 in. long, 3⁄8 to 1 in. wide, bluntish at the apex, rounded or nearly so at the base, minutely toothed on the margins and slightly bristly on the midrib and veins beneath; stalk up to 3⁄8 in long, downy and bristly. Flowers solitary, produced from lateral buds near the ends of the branchlets (the terminal bud is a growth-bud); pedicels 1⁄8 in. or slightly more long, glandular and bristly, like the short calyx. Corolla rotate with a short tube and five rounded, spreading lobes, white or yellowish white, freely dotted with red at the base, about 3⁄4 in. across. Stamens five, very unequal, the three lower ones glabrous or nearly so, the other two much shorter and nearly covered with brisdes. Ovary globose, bristly in the upper part; style glabrous. Bot. Mag., t. 9147. (s. Semibarbatum)
Native of central and southern Japan; described by Maximowicz from a specimen collected by Tschonoski; it was introduced by him to St Petersburg, but did not reach Britain until Wilson sent seeds in 1914, which were distributed by the Arnold Arboretum. As a garden plant it has little to recommend it, but it is of considerable botanical interest as a member of the Azaleastrum group (see p. 588).