Chimonanthus praecox

Chimonanthus praecox
	Winter flowers on leafless stems
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Magnoliids
Order:	Laurales
Family:	Calycanthaceae
Genus:	Chimonanthus
Species:	C. praecox
Binomial name
	Chimonanthus praecox; (L.) Link
Synonyms
	Beureria praecox (L.) Kuntze ; Calycanthus praecox L. ; Calycanthus suaveolens Salisb. ; Chimonanthus caespitosus T.B.Chao, Z.X.Chen & Z.Q.Li ; Chimonanthus fragrans (Loisel.) Lindl. ; Chimonanthus grandiflorus (Lindl.) Steud. ; Chimonanthus luteus (G.Don) Biel. ; Chimonanthus parviflorus Raf. ; Chimonanthus verus Biel. ; Chimonanthus yunnanensis W.W.Sm. ; Meratia fragrans Loisel. ; Meratia praecox (L.) Rehder & E.H.Wilson ; Meratia yunnanensis (W.W.Sm.) Hu ;

Chimonanthus praecox, also known as wintersweet or Japanese allspice, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Chimonanthus of the family Calycanthaceae, native to China. The plant is known as làméi (蠟梅) in Chinese.

It is a vigorous deciduous shrub growing to 4 m (13 ft) tall with an erect trunk and leaves 5–29 cm (2–11 in) long and 2–12 cm (1–5 in) broad. Its strongly scented pendant flowers, produced in winter (between November and March in UK,^[2]) on bare stems, have 15-21 yellow or pale green-yellow, tepals, the inner ones usually with purplish red pigments.^[3]^[4]^[5]

A&B: flowers; C: foliage; D: hypanthium; E: longitudinal section of hypanthium; F: fruit; G: terminal leaf buds; H: seedling
Winter flowering
Leaves and fruit

This plant is cultivated in gardens, producing valued flower colour in the dormant season. The cultivars C. praecox 'Grandiflorus'^[6] and C. praecox 'Luteus'^[7] have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

The plant is not closely related to allspice, Pimenta dioica.