Japanese name: イヌガシ（犬樫） Scientific name:Neolitsea aciculata
[Overview]
An evergreen tree.
The branches are green.
Leaves are simple and alternate, clustered in whorls at the branch tips, oblong, 5–12 cm long and 2–4 cm wide, with entire margins.
The upper surface of the leaf is glossy with three conspicuous veins, and the underside is grayish white.
Young leaves are covered on both sides with whitish to yellowish-brown silky hairs, so when the new leaves open they are easy to see even from a distance.
The petiole is 2–2.5 cm long.
The plant is dioecious.
Both male and female flowers are dark red and are borne in spherical umbels arising from the leaf axils.
The fruit is oblong and ripens to blackish purple in autumn of the year it flowers.
[Cultivation]
It prefers a sunny, well-drained, fertile site.
For fertilizer in winter, apply an organic fertilizer.
