Stachyurus praecox is a deciduous shrub that is perhaps best noted for its unique and colorful late winter to early spring flowers that bloom before the foliage emerges. Flower buds form in autumn and overwinter on the plant in pendant, catkin-like racemes that hang from the leaf axils. Each flowering raceme (to 4” long) typically has 10-20 tiny, bell-shaped, 4-petaled, yellow-green flowers (3/ 8” across). Flowers bloom in early spring. This shrub typically grows to 1.8-2m (less frequently to 3m) tall with an open, upright, arching-spreading habit. During the growing season, attractive red-brown to chestnut-brown branches are clothed (sometimes sparsely) with ovate, tapered, serrate, medium green leaves. Foliage may turn rosy red and yellow in fall.
Genus name comes from the Greek words stachys meaning an ear of corn, hence a spike and oura meaning a tail for the form of the racemes.