Spotted-laurel - Aucuba japonica
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Species Description
Widely planted throughout the UK on mass but survives and may self-seed. Habitat includes: woodland, plantations, hedges, parks, gardens, allotments, churchyards, roadside verges, car parks etc. Growing habit: Dioecious, Evergreen Perennial. Height: Up to 5 m. Flowers: April to May. Cultivated in Britain since 1783 and is now very frequent in gardens and amenity plantings. First recorded in the wild in 1978, and was found naturalised in woodland at Trevarrack (W. Cornwall) in 1981. Native to East Asia.
Stace 4:
Aucuba japonica Thunb. - Spotted-laurel.
Shrub to 5m; leaves 8-20cm, lanceolate to narrowly ovate, tapering-acute, dark green but often with yellow blotches; drupes ellipsoid, 10-15mm, bright scarlet; (2n=32). Neophyte-survivor; very commonly planted in shrubberies but rarely self-sown; very scattered in British Isles North to Central Scotland, mainly South West England; Japan.