There are no active references in this article.
A deciduous shrub of erect habit from 3 to 10 ft high; young wood not downy, but dotted with lenticels; pith lamellate. Leaves ovate, 2 to 3 in. long, 3⁄4 to 11⁄2 in. wide, of firm texture, glabrous, sometimes sharply and unequally toothed, but usually entire, pointed at the apex, rounded at the base; stalk 1⁄6 to 1⁄3 in. long. Flowers yellow, produced in March, mostly singly, occasionally in pairs. Calyx-lobes broadly ovate, green, shorter than the corolla-tube. Corolla 11⁄4in. wide, with four narrow-oblong divisions. Fruits smooth, ovoid, with a long beak. Bot. Mag., t. 8039.
A very rare relict species, confined to a small area in northern Albania and bordering parts of Yugoslavia; discovered by Dr Baldacci in 1897 and introduced by him to this country by means of seeds sent to Kew in 1899. Some doubt has been expressed as to its being truly native in Europe, as its fellow species are found only in the Far East; but from the wild nature of the country in which it is found, and the fact that several cases of analogous distribution in other genera exist, this doubt is not justified. It is allied to F. viridlssima, but differs in the ovate leaves and by a lanky habit which makes it more ungainly. It is the least ornamental of forsythias and the last to flower, but is of phytogeographical interest.