The typical state of this species occurs in Japan, Korea and E. China. The plants raised from the seeds collected by Wilson in W. Hupeh and W. Szechwan belong to the following variety:
var. pubescens Rehd. & Wils. (under
An evergreen tree up to 80 ft high in the wild, but a small, bushy tree in cultivation; young shoots covered with short pale hairs. Young plants are armed with straight, sharp, axillary spines {1/2} to over 1 in. long. Leaves alternate, ovate to roundish ovate, toothed except near the base, which is rounded or broadly wedge-shaped, apex acuminate, {3/4} to 3 in. long, {1/2} to 1{1/2} in. wide, firm in texture, dark glossy green, glabrous on both surfaces; leaf-stalk {1/8} to {1/4} in. long, downy like the shoots. Flowers unisexual, small, yellow, fragrant, produced from the leaf-axils in short racemes {1/4} to 1 in. long. Fruits about the size of small peas, black-purple, the style adhering at the top.Wilson considered this to be one of the finest evergreen trees of China, but it grows at lower elevations than most of his introductions and remains a small tree in Britain, where it is very rare and really of little worth as an ornamental.