A deciduous shrub up to 12 ft high or sometimes a small tree twice as tall; young shoots downy, becoming glabrous and red the second year. Leaves roundish-ovate; 2 to 3 in. long, 1 to 2 in. wide; rounded or slightly heart-shaped at the base, tapered abruptly at the apex to a short slender point; upper surface furnished with short stiff hairs, the lower one greyish white and covered with appressed hairs; midrib and veins darkened with rusty brown down; veins in six to eight pairs; stalk downy like the midrib, 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. long. Flowers small, white with blue anthers, in corymbs 2 to 3 in. across. Fruit globose, blue-black, 3⁄16 in. wide.
Native of Hupeh, Szechwan, and other provinces of China. It is one of a crowd of similar cornels with small white flowers. The dark down on the midrib and veins is distinctive. Wilson found a tree 25 ft high with a trunk 1 ft in diameter. Flowers in July.