A deciduous tree up to 35 or 40 ft high; young shoots finely downy at first only. Leaves oval, tapered at both ends, slender-pointed; 2 to 41⁄2 in long, 11⁄4 to 2 in. wide; the dark green upper surface has fine appressed hairs, but they are much more abundant on the lower surface; veins in three to five pairs; stalk up to 1 in. long. Flowers 3⁄8 in. wide, white, produced during June in corymbs about 3 in. wide; style club-shaped; fruit globose, 1⁄4 in. wide, black.
Native of Central and W. China; introduced by Wilson in 1907 under his number 1017. Without any special distinctiveness it is interesting as a tree cornel. It flowered and developed fruit at Abbotsbury, near Weymouth, in 1919. There is a specimen measuring 40 × 3 ft at Spetchley Park, Worcs., and another in. the R.H.S. Garden, Wisley, about 25 ft high (1967).