A tree 40 ft high, the young shoots, leaf-stalks, and especially the under-surface of the leaves covered with a dull grey felt. Leaves ovate, 2 to 5 in. long, 11⁄2 to 31⁄2 in. wide, heart-shaped at the base, taper-pointed, coarsely toothed (sometimes lobed), dark glossy green above, without tufts in the vein-axils beneath. Flowers numerous, sometimes over twenty on the cyme; floral bracts 3 to 41⁄2 in. long, 5⁄8 to 3⁄4 in. wide, with scattered starry down. Fruits globose, felted, 3⁄8 in. long.
Native of E. China (Kiangsu). It is sacred to Buddhists, and has long been cultivated about temples both in China and in Japan, from which it was first described. The description given above is of the form cultivated at Kew, but there are others in which the leaves are relatively much broader. It is a slow-growing tree with us, but flowers freely in the second half of July. The Kew tree, though planted in 1904, measures only 20 × 11⁄4 ft (1974).