Leaves are alternate, thinly herbaceous, ovate-oblong.

They are densely serrate with aristate teeth on the margin, provided with 2 glands on the lowest teeth.

Flowers open in April with leaves. Drupes ripen to reddish black in August.

This tree is common in low mountains and sunny moist places in the warm or cool temperate zone.

The wood is used for engravings, furnitures, handles of implements. The bark and root yield dye. Preserved fruit with salt called Anningo is edible.

Distribution ; Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu