A deciduous shrub 6 to 9 ft high, with dark red, glabrous young shoots. Leaves oval, ovate, or somewhat obovate, slenderly pointed, broadly wedge-shaped or almost rounded at the base, finely toothed, 11⁄4 to 21⁄2 in. long, 1⁄2 to 11⁄3 in. wide, dark bright green and soon quite glabrous; stalk 1⁄2 in. or less long. Corymbs 1 to 11⁄2 in. wide, terminating short leafy twigs and carrying few (rarely more than eight or nine) flowers; flower-stalks 1⁄8 to 1 in. long, slender, glabrous. Flowers about 1⁄2 in. wide, white; petals roundish with a few hairs inside the claw; calyx-tube top-shaped, with small, ovate, pointed lobes. Fruits oval, 1⁄3 in. long, not so much wide, dullish red or orange-red, crowned with the persistent sepals.
Native of Hupeh, China; introduced by Wilson to the Arnold Arboretum, Mass., in 1908. It is perfectly hardy at Kew, but neither in flower nor in fruit has it proved very ornamental up to the present. It blossoms in May.