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Styrax shiraiana Makino

Modern name

Styrax shiraianus Makino

A small deciduous tree; young shoots covered with minute stellate down. Leaves mostly obovate and tapered at the base, sometimes roundish; coarsely and unevenly toothed (or almost lobed) above the middle, entire towards the base; 112 to 4 in. long, 1 to 3 in. wide, stellately downy beneath, more especially on the midrib, thinly so elsewhere; veins in six to eight pairs; stalk 18 to 12 in. long. Flowers white, very shortly stalked, produced during June in racemes of eight or ten that terminate young, leafy, lateral shoots and are about 212 in. long. Corolla 58 to 34 in. long, funnel-shaped, five-lobed, the lobes ovate, pointed and about half as long as the tubular part, downy. Calyx bell-shaped, with five triangular, sometimes bifid, lobes, thickly covered with tawny down. Fruit globose to egg-shaped, 12 in. long.

Native of Japan, where it is said to be sparingly distributed. This is a very distinct species, firstly in the tube of the corolla being twice as long as the lobes (usually it is shorter) and, secondly, in the shape of the leaves with their broad ends and deep toothing. They bear a considerable resemblance to those of Hamamelis japonica. S. shiraiana was introduced to the USA in 1915 but did not reach Britain until some thirty years later and is still too rare in gardens for its merits to be assessed.


Genus

Styrax

Other species in the genus