Seasonal Wild Flowers

Spotted Laurel

Aucuba japonica

Garryaceae

Japanese Laurel, Dold-dust Tree, Aucuba

March to April

Naturalised spotted laurel is thinly scattered throughout the

country, and is most common in the Southwest.

The planted shrub is found in gardens everywhere.

See the BSBI distribution map for Spotted Laurel

It is a neophyte which has been grown in gardens, parks

and amenity areas since the 1780s, but has been

recognised as an escape in the wild only since the

1970s.

In the South it grows from seed, but elsewhere it is

a relic of cultivation.

It is found in woods, hedges and brownfield sites

and beside roads and footpaths.

Spotted Laurel is dioecious (separate male and

female plants) and has uniformly glossy, dark

green leaves.

It is the female plant of A. japonica var Variegata.

It has yellow speckled leaves and is the commonest

one grown.

Spotted Laurel bush

Female flowers

Close-up of female flower and last-year's berries

Berries