Chionanthus retusus var. mairei H. Léveillé.

Shrubs or trees to 20 m. Branchlets terete, spreading, glabrous, or pubescent when young. Petiole 0.5-2 cm, densely covered with curly hairs; leaf blade oblong, elliptic, or orbicular, sometimes ovate or obovate, 3-12 × 2-6.5 cm, usually somewhat leathery, adaxially villous along veins, abaxially villous or glabrescent except on veins, base rounded to cuneate, rarely subcordate, apex blunt, sometimes retuse or acute; primary veins 3 or 4 on each side of midrib, slightly raised. Cymose panicles terminal on lateral shoots, 3-12 cm, glabrescent. Pedicel slender, 0.5-2 cm, glabrous. Calyx 1-3 mm; lobes narrowly deltate or lanceolate, 0.5-2.5 mm. Corolla white; tube 1.5-4 mm; lobes linear-oblanceolate, (1-) 1.5-2.5 cm. Anthers long ovate, 1.5-2 mm. Drupe blue-black or black, pruinose, ovoid, 1-1.5 cm × 6-10 mm. Fl. Mar-Jun, fr. Jun-Nov. 2n = 46*.

Mixed forests, thickets, along rivers; 0-3000 m. Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Hebei, Henan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [Japan, Korea].