A small tree, 12 to 30 ft high; young shoots, leaf-stalks, and calyx covered with a close, grey, starry down. Leaves lanceolate, with a long tapered point, and a wedge-shaped or slightly rounded base, remotely and shallowly toothed, 3 to 5 in. long, 1 to 13⁄4 in. wide, of thin texture, downy on both surfaces, but especially on the midrib and veins beneath; stalk 1⁄4 to 1⁄3 in. long. Flowers white, nearly 1 in. across, produced at the end of the shoots and in the uppermost leaf-axils on the current season’s growth, forming a group of slender panicles each 4 to 8 in. long. Calyx minutely five-toothed.
This species was discovered by Wilson and introduced by him for Messrs Veitch from W. Hupeh, China, in 1900; all his collections (save one doubtful one) were from a single locality near Fang Hsien. It is a hardy species, allied to S. hemsleyana, but less common in gardens.