Skimmia japonica

The Japanese skimmia is a rounded shrub in the citrus or Rutaceae family and is native to Japan, China and Southeast Asia. It grows to 6 m tall and wide.

Many cultivars have been developed for ornamental garden use.

• Leaves are evergreen, glossy, leathery, oval to obovate, dark green to 12 cm long with yellowish-green undersides, and are mostly clustered whorl-like at the branch ends. They are aromatic when crushed.
• Flowers are creamy white, sometimes tinged pink, 6mm across, blooming in rounded terminal panicles 5-7.5 cm across at the branch tips in mid April.
• Fruit is a red fleshy drupe 6–12 mm diameter, containing a single seed.