Habitat

• native to China, Korea, and Japan
• hardy to zone 6, and warmer parts of 5

Habit and Form

• a small deciduous tree or large shrub
• 15' to 25' tall
• rounded wide-spreading form
• medium texture
• medium growth rate

Summer Foliage

• opposite leaf arrangement
• simple, deciduous leaves
• leaf shape is variable
• obovate leaf shape, in the north
• up to 8" long
• leaf margin can be entire or serrated
• dark green leaf color
• thick, leathery texture

Autumn Foliage

• yellow-green fall color

Flowers

• pure white flowers
• blooms in June
• flowers are clustered in 3" long panicles
• flowers borne at terminal stem tips

Fruit

• oblong, dark blue drupe
• 0.5" long
• ripens in September
• only occurs on female plant

Bark

• gray-brown bark
• lenticels

Culture

• full sun to partial shade
• prefers moist, deep, acidic soils that are well-drained
• fairly adaptable
• possibly difficult to transplant
• requires little maintenance once established

Landscape Use

• specimen
• naturalistic plantings
• shrub border
• for flowering
• fruits to attract birds
• in groupings
• urban sites due to pollution tolerance

Liabilities

• propagation is difficult so plant is expensive or hard to locate in commerce
• most plants are seed propagated so the plant sex is generally unknown for purchased plant
• slow growing

ID Features

• stem is square
• late to leaf out in Spring
• white fringe-like flowers clustered in long panicles
• females with blue "olive-like" fruit
• multi-stemmed large shrub or small tree

Propagation

• by seed

Cultivars/Varieties

• none