Liu Yue Xue

Serissa japonica (sometimes Serissa foetida) is a small evergreen densely branched shrub in the Rubiaceae growing 30-90 cm tall, native to open hillsides, grassy slopes, and forest margins across southern China, Japan, Taiwan, and Indochina. The slender wiry stems are greyish and bear opposite, small, narrowly elliptic to ovate, glossy dark green leaves 6-22 mm long, with entire margins; foliage emits a slightly fetid smell when bruised. Small funnel-shaped white (sometimes flushed pink) flowers, about 6-10 mm across with usually 4-6 spreading lobes whose throats are hairy inside, are produced solitary or in small clusters in the leaf axils from spring through autumn, giving rise to the name "tree of a thousand stars." Fruits are small dry drupes. The dried whole flowering plant is the medicinal Liu Yue Xue.