Neillia thyrsiflora D. Don

A low deciduous bush of neat, rounded habit, about 3 ft high; young shoots angular, glabrous, sometimes reddish. Leaves 11⁄2 to 3 in. long, two-thirds as wide, three-lobed (most markedly so on the barren shoots), ovate with a long, narrow point, sharply, often doubly, toothed, the base mostly heart-shaped, dark green and glabrous above, the bright green undersurface downy on the chief veins; stalk 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. long. Flowers in a downy raceme, terminating the shoot, or springing from the axils of the uppermost leaves. Each flower is about 1⁄3 in. long; the calyx-tube bell-shaped, silky hairy, the lobes lance-shaped and pointed; petals roundish ovage, white. Fruits consisting of one ‘pod’ enclosed by the persistent calyx, and containing four to eight seeds.

A species of wide range in E. Asia, from Nepal eastward and south-eastward to S. China, Burma, and Malaysia. It was in cultivation as early as 1855, but has always been rare in gardens.