Lindera chienii

The winter spicebush is in the laurel or Lauraceae family and is native to China. It is a shrub or small tree reaching up to 8 m tall.

• Branchlets are reddish or grey and villous, quickly glabrous.
• Leaves are deciduous, alternate, oblanceolate or obovate, 6–11 cm long and 2–5.5 cm across, both surfaces glabrous or with tufts of hair in the vein axils, triplinerved (3 main veins) with 7–9 conspicuous veins on each side of the midrib, margins entire or ciliate, apex acuminate to acute; petiole 0.2–0.5 cm long and villous.
• Plant is dioecious, (males and females on separate plants); umbels are solitary, axillary, with 6–12 flowers and subtended by 4 bracts; flowers are greenish yellow with a six-lobed villous perianth tube. Flowering is from April to May or earlier.
• Fruit is subglobose, scarlet, about 1 cm in diameter; fruiting is in September-October.