Aucuba is a genus of three to ten species of flowering plants, now placed in the family Garryaceae, although formerly classified in the Aucubaceae or Cornaceae.
Aucubaspecies are native to eastern Asia, from the eastern Himalayas east to China, Korea, and Japan.[1] The name is a latinization of JapaneseAokiba.[2] They are evergreenshrubs or small trees 2–13 m tall, similar in appearance to the laurels of the genus Laurus, having glossy, leathery leaves, and are among the shrubs that are mistakenly called laurels in gardens.[3]
The leaves are opposite, broad lanceolate, 8–25cm long and 2–7cm broad, with a few large teeth on the margin near the apex of the leaf. Aucubas are dioecious, having separate male and female plants. Flowers are small, 4–8mm diameter, each with four purplish-brown petals; 10-30 are in loose cymes. Fruit are red drupes about 1cm in diameter.[4]
↑Alice M. Coats, Garden Shrubs and Their Histories (1964) 1992, s.v. "Aucuba".
↑"With characteristic perversity, we deny the name of laurel to the only member of that genus that we cultivate—Laurus nobilis—which we call the Bay, and bestow it on a number of totally unconnected shrubs", observes Alice M. Coats.
