Lindera aggregata

Lindera aggregata (Sims) Kosterm. is an evergreen shrub or small tree in the Lauraceae, native to central and southern China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam. It reaches 3–5 m, with slender, brown-tomentose young twigs and characteristically tuberous, fusiform fleshy roots — the part used as the Chinese medicinal herb wu yao (烏藥). The alternate leaves are leathery, elliptic to broadly obovate, 2.5–7 cm long, glossy dark green above and tomentose beneath, with three prominent basal veins. Small umbels of yellow to greenish-yellow unisexual flowers arise in the leaf axils in early spring, the plants dioecious. The fruit is a small ellipsoid drupe about 1 cm long, ripening black on a reddish cupule. The species grows in evergreen broadleaved forest, scrub and roadside slopes from sea level to 1000 m.