Eurya aurescens (Rehder & E. H. Wilson) Handel-Mazzetti; E. hayatae Yamamoto; E. japonica Thunberg var. aurescens Rehder & E. H. Wilson; E. japonica var. nitida (Korthals) Dyer; E. japonica var. thunbergii Thwaites; E. nitida var. aurescens (Rehder & E. H. Wilson) Kobuski; E. nitida var. nanjenshanensis F. C. Hsieh et al.; Rapanea aurea H. Léveillé, p.p. as to Cavalerie 841.

Shrubs or trees, 2-5 m tall. Young branches grayish brown; current year branchlets yellowish green, slender, 2-ribbed, glabrous; terminal buds to 1 cm, glabrous. Petiole 2-5 mm, glabrous; leaf blade elliptic, oblong-elliptic, or obovate-oblong, (3-)4-6(-7) × 1.5-2.5 cm, thinly leathery to leathery, abaxially pale green to yellowish green, adaxially dark green and shiny, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially slightly impressed, secondary veins 9-12 on each side of midvein, abaxially slightly visible, and adaxially obscure, base cuneate to rounded, margin closely serrulate, crenulate, or subentire, apex obtuse, acute, or shortly acuminate and sometimes with an emarginate tip. Flowers axillary, solitary or to 4 in a cluster. Pedicel 2-3 mm, slender, glabrous. Male flowers: bracteoles suborbicular, ca. 1 mm, glabrous; sepals suborbicular to ovate, 1.5-2.5 mm, submembranous, glabrous, apex rounded; petals obovate, 3.5-4 mm; stamens 14-20; anthers not locellate; pistillode glabrous. Female flowers: bracteoles and sepals similar to those of male flowers; petals oblong, 2-2.5 mm; ovary ovoid, glabrous, 3-loculed; style 1.5-3 mm, apically 3-lobed. Fruit bluish black when mature, globose, 3-4 mm in diam. Seeds brown, reniform to globose-reniform, shiny. Fl. Nov-Jan, fr. Jul-Sep.

Forests, thickets; 500-1500(-2600) m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Henan, W Hubei, S and SW Hunan, S Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, S Zhejiang [Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam].