This spring-flowering shrub is bearing attractive racemes in the Winter Garden, beside Bateson Walk.
The genus Stachyurus contains approximately 20 species of woody plants, and is the sole member of the family Stachyuraceae. All members occur in eastern Asia, and all are deciduous. Stachyurus praecox is a dioecious species, with male and female plants, and it is thought that the principle pollinators are hover flies and solitary bees. A Japanese species, S. praecox prefers a humus-rich soil, and while tolerating alkaline conditions, it will thrive in acid soil. In Japan it grows in warm temperate forest margins. Growing to 10m in height, it produces elegant racemes of up to 20 individual, pale yellow flowers, which develop in the leaf axils.