Evergreen hairless shrub 3-4 m tall or more. Leaves entire, elliptic to narrowly obovate 8-14 cm long, tip narrowed but blunt. Flowers 1-5 in leaf axils, to 2 cm wide, creamy white, fragrant, on thick stalks; late spring to early summer. Fruit black, about 1 cm long.
The leafy branches are used in Japanese Shinto ceremonies.
Temperate E Asia
Source: (1997). Camellia. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Leaves bright green, thin, the edges variegated dark yellow and pink.
Introduced to the West from Japan by Robert Fortune c. 1860. [C. fortunei Hook. f.]
