Leaves with short petioles are alternate, ovobate, rough and smell when dried.

Flowers open in early spring before leaves.

It grows near streams in the cool temperate or subarctic zone.

The wood is used for utensils, turneries, fuels. The fibers of the bark are for cloths, ropes.

Distribution ; Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, Korea, China, Manchuria, East siberia, Kamchatka