Fuzzy Pride Of Rochester

It is a beautiful ornamental shrub, cultivated for its white or pinkish fragrant flowers, in parts of Asia and Europe; can be easily propagated by cuttings.

Shrub 2-3 m tall. Bark cinnamon coloured, peeling off in thin papery longitudinal strips. Leaves 4-7 cm long, 2-3 cm broad, ovate-lanceolate, oblique at the base; crenate-dentate, mucronate; dull green in colour with rough pube¬scence on both sides; stellate hairs on the dorsal side 5-rayed, on the ventral side 6-7-rayed, both without upright rays in the centre; petiole 5 mm long. Flowers white or pinkish, 4-8, in racemose panicles, c. 9 mm in diam. Sepals ovate, 2 mm long, c. 1.5 mm broad, stellately pubescent; stellate hairs 11-16-rayed without upright rays. Petals oblong-ovate, stellately pubescent without upright rays. Stamens 10, 5 long with filaments, 7 mm long, 5 short with filaments, 4 mm long, obdiplostemonous, lateral teeth on filaments wedge shaped. Styles 4, filiform, exserted, stigmas capitate or bilobed.

Distribution: A native of China and Japan.

Fl. Per. April-May.