Size: shrub, 3-6' average height at maturity, equal spread
Buds: winter vegetative buds naked, flower buds have a few scales that are clustered stalked .25-.5", terminal vegetative bud often less than 2 times as long as lateral buds at its base, usually brown
Leaves: deciduous, opposite, 1-4" long, .75-2.5" wide, simple, broadly ovate to elliptical, acute apex, irregularly toothed margins, dark green with sparse stellate (star-shaped) pubescence on top, thicker on underside
Twigs: pubescent when young
Flowers: monoecious, pink in bud, white when open, each up to .5", hemispherical cymes like a half-golf-ball, intensely fragrant
Fruit: .33" egg-shaped drupe, black, appear in late summer
Bark: brown or gray, fissures on older stems
