ツツジ科アセビ属の常緑低木で、学名は Pieris japonica。英名は Japanese andromeda、Lily of the valley bush。
The Japanese andromeda (Pieris japonica) belongs to Ericaceae (the Azalea family). It is a small evergreen tree that is distributed from Miyagi Prefecture south to the Pacific Ocean Side of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. These trees occasionary form pure forests, and it can reach 1-7 m in height. Leaves are oblanceolate to elliptic with shallow toothed edges at upper half of leaf blades, and cluster at end of twigs. Small whitish bell-shaped flowers come in drooping panicles from March to May. This tree includes a poisonous asebotoxin. If you eat these leaves, your feet may be numb with poison.