Callicarpa arborea Roxb.

Trees ca. 8 m tall; branchlets, inflorescences, and petioles densely tomentose, hairs stellate or verticillately branched. Leaf blade elliptic, oblong-elliptic, or ovate, 13-37 X 7-13 cm, leathery, abaxially densely yellow-brown stellate tomentose, adaxially dark green and shiny, base cuneate to rounded, margin entire. Cymes 6-11 cm across; peduncle 4-angled, longer than petioles. Calyx cup-shaped, truncate or nearly so, outside densely gray stellate tomentose. Corolla purple, ca. 3 mm. Stamens much longer than corolla. Ovary densely stellate tomentose. Fruit purple-brown, ca. 2 mm in diam. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Aug-Dec.

It is a subtropical plant. It grows in Nepal up to 1500 m altitude. In southern China it grows in mixed forests on mountain slopes between 1,000-2,500 m above sea level. In Yunnan.

The ripe fruit are eaten fresh. The bark is used as a substitute for betel nut by older people. It is also eaten along with Rubus paniculatus. The leaves are used to ferment soybean. The flowers are fried with meat. They are eaten with chilli, salt and ginger.

Plants are grown from seed.