Home / Education and Outreach / Interpretative Signs / Eurya japonica
Eurya japonica
Eurya japonica is a winter-flowering, broadleaf evergreen shrub related to the camellia. In marked contrast with the camellia, however, its flowers are individually tiny and exceptionally malodorous.
Eurya is a genus of dioecious shrubs and trees (separate female and male plants) native to southern and eastern Asia and the Pacific Islands. As an ornamental, Eurya japonica has much to recommend it, with its strong herringbone branching pattern, dark green leaves (turning burgundy in winter), copious greenish-white flowers and, on female plants, black berries. The minute flowers are attractive, but smell somewhat metallic and bile-like. Branches of Eurya japonica are used in Shinto ceremonies in Japan.
