Japanese name: ミミズバイ（蚯蚓灰） Scientific name:Symplocos glauca
[Overview]
An evergreen small tree found in laurel forests.
Young branches are ridged and at first covered with brown hairs.
Leaves are simple and alternate, narrowly oblong-elliptic, 8–15 cm long and 2–4 cm wide.
The leaves are glossy, thick and leathery, and hairless on both sides.
The underside is tinged with powdery white.
The leaf margin curls slightly toward the underside and is almost entire, or has low serrations only near the tip.
There is a leaf stalk.
Very short, clustered inflorescences emerge from the leaf axils and bear flowers densely.
The corolla is white, 0.4–0.5 cm long, and deeply divided into 5 lobes, with many long stamens.
The fruit is a lopsided ovoid-oblong, 1.2–1.9 cm long, ripening to purplish black in autumn of the following year.
[Uses]
The ash of the wood was used as a mordant.
[Notes]
The Japanese name comes from the fruit's shape being likened to an earthworm's head and from the fact that ash was made from it.
