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Aucuba is a genus of three to ten species of , now placed in the family Garryaceae, although formerly classified in the Aucubaceae or Cornaceae.
Aucuba species are native plant to eastern Asia, from the eastern Himalayas east to China, Korea, and Japan. The name is a latinization of Japanese Aokiba.Alice M. Coats, Garden Shrubs and Their Histories (1964) 1992, s.v. "Aucuba". They are evergreen or small 2–13 m tall, similar in appearance to the laurels of the genus Laurus, having glossy, leathery leaves, and are among the shrubs that are mistakenly called Lauraceae in gardens."With characteristic perversity, we deny the name of laurel to the only member of that genus that we cultivate— Laurus nobilis—which we call the Bay, and bestow it on a number of totally unconnected shrubs", observes Alice M. Coats.
The leaf are opposite, broad lanceolate, 8–25 cm long and 2–7 cm broad, with a few large teeth on the margin near the apex of the leaf. Aucubas are plant sexuality, having separate male and female plants. are small, 4–8 mm diameter, each with four purplish-brown petals; 10-30 are in loose cymes. Fruit are red about 1 cm in diameter. Flora of China Vol. 14 Page 222, 桃叶珊瑚属 tao ye shan hu shu, Aucuba Thunberg, Nov. Gen. Pl. 3: 61. 1783.
Species
Three species ( A. chinensis, A. himalaica, A. japonica) have traditionally been accepted, but more recently Flora of China and Plants of the World Online accept ten species:
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