An evergreen tree to about 35 ft high in the wild, glabrous in all its parts. Leaves leathery, glossy above, dull beneath, ovate-lanceolate to elliptic, 2 to 6 in. long, 5⁄8 to 2 in. wide, rounded or broadly wedge-shaped at the base, acute or shortly acuminate at the apex, margins bluntly toothed (but spiny on young plants); petioles 3⁄16 to 3⁄8 in. long. Male and female inflorescences both consisting of dense axillary clusters. Fruits red, about 1⁄8 in. wide, but numerous in each cluster; nutlets four, wrinkled and faintly ribbed.
Native of W. and S.W. China; introduced by Wilson from Hupeh around 1900, when collecting for Veitch’s nursery (seed number 781), and later reintroduced by Forrest from Yunnan. There is an example at Trewithen in Cornwall, 30 ft high (1971).
I. forrestii Comber – This species was described by H. F. Comber in 1933 from material collected by Forrest, some of which had previously been placed under I. corallina. It somewhat resembles that species in foliage, but the leaves are mostly broadest above the middle, with a more pronounced acuminate tip, and are usually toothed only in the upper part. The fruits are small as in I. corallina, but the nutlets are smooth and five to seven in number. Also the flowers usually have five or six petals and sepals, against four in I. corallina.