Japanese Ternstroemia; Cleyera
Ternstroemia gymnanthera · Pentaphylacaceae · 후피향나무
How to spot it
Evergreen leaves with red stalks cluster at the branch tips in layers.
Look
- Leaves
- Leathery, glossy dark green leaves are 6.4-10 cm long with red leaf stalks; new spring leaves are bronze-red, and in winter they take on a bronze tint.
- Flowers
- In late spring, cream flowers about 1.3 cm across grow in the leaf axils, with five fleshy obovate petals, five sepals and many stamens; not very ornamental.
- Fruit
- Egg-shaped fruits ripen from green to red in fall.
- Bark
- Thin, rusty gray and hairless.
Where it grows
- In Korea
- Native
- Native to
- Described as native to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, India and Borneo.