Alangium platanifolium

The lobe-leaf alangium is a plant in the Alangiaceae family that is native to Japan and China. It is a deciduous shrub 2 m or more high.

• Branch stems are erect, zigzagged, very pithy and slightly downy; winter buds are hairy.
• Leaves are deciduous, alternate, roundish or broadly ovate, 10–20 cm long, nearly as wide, with 3–5 large pointed lobes towards the apex; upper surface is dark green and smooth except for scattered hairs; lower surface is covered with pale down; petiole is 2.5–5 cm long; leaves become golden yellow in the fall.
• Flowers are bisexual, white, in a 1-4 flowered cyme from the leaf axils of the current year’s shoots; the common stalk is 1.2–3 cm long and divides into two at the apex, the branches usually dividing again; flower-stalks are 0.6–2.5 cm long; flower’s corolla at the beginning of flowering is tubular, with 8 yellowish-white, narrowly linear or belt-shaped petals up to 3.5 cm long and up to 2.5 cm wide, which spiral outward during flowering, exposing the stamens and style; stamens are as many as the petals, each attached to the base of a petal, filament 8-10 mm long and finely hairy, anthers are very narrow, 1.6 cm long; flowers are produced during June and July.
• Fruit is thinly fleshy, drupe-like, 11 mm long and 7 mm across, initially whitish-green, later turning blue, containing a single, bony stone.