Botryostege bracteata (Maxim.) Stapf

A deciduous shrub 3 to 6 ft high, with glabrous, pale brown young shoots. Leaves alternate, obovate, tapered towards the base, mostly rounded at the apex or tapered to a short mucro, entire; 1 to 2 in. long, 3⁄8 to 1 in. wide, quite glabrous on both surfaces; stalk 1⁄8 in. or less long. Racemes erect, terminal on the current year’s leafy twigs, slender, 3 to 6 in. long, bearing the flowers at intervals of 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in., each on a slender stalk 1⁄4 to 5⁄8 in. long. Each flower springs from the axil of an oval or obovate, leafy, ciliate bract 1⁄4 in. long and there are also smaller bracteoles on the individual flower-stalk. Petals white, tinged pink, usually three but sometimes four or even five, narrow-oblong, 3⁄8 in. long, recurved at the end; sepals usually five, narrowly oval, 3⁄16 in. long; stamens six. Style stout, standing out 3⁄8 in. above the petals and strongly curved. Seed-vessel a dry, usually three-valved capsule, 1⁄4 in. wide.

Native of Japan. This shrub has been in intermittent cultivation at Kew and probably elsewhere during the last forty years, but it is quite uncommon. It was growing in the Arnold Arboretum in 1910. It flowered during July and August when grown at Kew and the copious racemes made it worth growing.