A small deciduous tree, 20 to 30 ft high, of rather narrow proportions; young wood covered at first with tufted hairs, soon glabrous. Leaves broadly oval or almost round, 3 to 8 in. long, and from two-thirds to as much wide; distantly toothed, except near the base; upper surface deep green and glabrous except on the veins, the lower surface densely clothed with velvety tufted down; stalk 1⁄4 to 1 in. long, the base enclosing the bud. Flowers fragrant, about 1 in. long, pure white, drooping, produced in June on terminal racemes 6 to 8 in. long, each flower on a downy stalk 1⁄3 in. long; the common stalk is almost glabrous. Corolla deeply five-lobed, the lobes about 3⁄4 in. long, 1⁄4 in. wide, minutely downy. Calyx between funnel- and bell-shaped, from five- to ten-lobed, downy, 1⁄4 in. long, persistent and enlarging with the fruit, which is egg-shaped, about 3⁄4 in. long, velvety. Bot. Mag., t. 7039.
Native of Japan, Korea and N. China; introduced from Japan by Maries for Messrs Veitch in 1879. This is one of the most beautiful and striking of flowering trees and an older inhabitant of British gardens than the equally fine S. hemsleyana. It needs the same conditions as that species, but is perhaps rather slower-growing and slower to flower. It attained a height of 20 ft in Veitch’s Coombe Wood nursery near Kingston-on-Thames. Examples measured recently are: Grayswood Hill, Surrey, 28 × 31⁄4 ft at 1 ft (1976); Ladhams House, Goudhurst, Kent, 52 × 31⁄2 ft (1975); Endsleigh, Devon, 26 × 31⁄4 ft (1974); Caerhays, Cornwall, 36 × 3 ft (1971).