Lindera erythrocarpa

Lindera erythrocarpa is a deciduous shrub or small tree in the Lauraceae growing 3–8 m tall, with slender, grey-brown branches and a slightly aromatic bark. Young twigs are smooth and somewhat reddish. Leaves are alternate, simple, obovate to oblanceolate, 6–14 cm long, with a wedge-shaped base, an obtuse or shortly pointed apex, and entire margins; they are deep green and glabrous above and paler beneath with fine appressed hairs along the veins, turning vivid yellow in autumn. The leaves emit a faint, sweet, sassafras-like fragrance when crushed. The plant is dioecious; small, pale yellow, four-tepalled flowers are borne in dense axillary umbel-like clusters along the bare twigs just before or as the leaves emerge in early spring. The fruit is a globose, fleshy drupe 6–8 mm across that ripens bright red on a slender, slightly thickened pedicel; the single seed is hard and dark. It is native to deciduous woodlands of Korea, Japan, eastern China, and Taiwan.