• leaves opposite, ovate, acuminate, with few or no marginal teeth
• leaves dark green; turning poor yellow-orange in fall
• buds small, brown, imbricate, usually divergent to 45°
• stems thin, rounded, purple-brown
• bark on old stems exfoliates into shaggy brown-orangish sheets
• flowers tubular, pink with a yellow throat, profuse at every node, in mid-spring
• fruit is an unusual bristly brown capsule, in clusters, long persistent and a good ID feature
• habit is a dense, large multi-stemmed shrub with an upright vase shape

View Kolkwitzia amabilis page in the UConn Plant Database