Curtis Botanical – Plate 6631 – Early Stachyurus / Japanese Spiketail

Original antique black-and-white print from Curtis's Botanical Magazine — Plate 6631.

A Japanese shrub that blooms in late winter — before the leaves emerge — producing long, pendulous chains of tiny pale yellow cup-shaped flowers that dangle like strings of pale beads. Praecox means 'early ripening' or 'precocious' — it blooms in February and March when almost nothing else is flowering.

Birth flower: February (blooms in February). Pacific NW (OR, WA) — a prized winter-blooming shrub in Portland and Seattle gardens.

Uncolored plate. Condition consistent with age of volume. Each print is a unique piece of botanical history, printed on paper aged over a century.

This is an original uncolored (plain) plate from leftover publisher stock of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, printed in London. It was issued uncolored and never bound. We bought the holding at the estate of a Chicago rare bookseller. Labels and stock papers from the British dealer Wheldon & Wesley came with it. Library stamps, when present, are noted on the listing.