Lindera glauca

Lindera glauca is a deciduous shrub or small tree of the laurel family Lauraceae and one of the East Asian members of the spicebush genus Lindera. Typically reaching 2 to 8 metres tall, it produces slender ascending branches and alternate, entire, elliptic to obovate leaves 4 to 10 cm long that are dark green above and conspicuously glaucous-grey beneath, hence the specific epithet glauca; the foliage is strongly aromatic when crushed and turns rich yellow to brown in autumn, with the dried leaves often persisting on the twigs through winter. The plant is dioecious, with small clusters of pale yellow flowers borne on bare twigs in early spring before the leaves expand, each cluster subtended by deciduous bud scales. Female plants ripen small globose drupes about 6 to 8 mm across that turn from green to glossy black at maturity. The species is native to China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam, where it inhabits hill slopes, thickets and the margins of mixed forests on a range of soils.