Bird claw cleyera, Japanese cleyera

Japanese cleyera is an evergreen shrub featuring glossy, dark green leaves with smooth edges and distinctly reddish leaf stems. You can tell it apart from similar shrubs by its curved, claw-like terminal buds and small, fragrant, creamy-white flowers that hang downwards beneath the foliage. In Japan, sprigs of this plant are known as sakaki and have been used for centuries as sacred offerings in traditional Shinto rituals.

It thrives in moist, well-drained soils of wooded slopes and thickets throughout East Asia, particularly across Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.