Chimonanthus praecox, also known as wintersweet or Japanese allspice, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Chimonanthus of the family Calycanthaceae, native to China. The plant is known as làméi (腊梅) in Chinese and rōbai (蜡梅) in Japanese. It is a vigorous deciduous shrub growing to 4 m (13 ft) tall with an erect trunk and leaves 5–29 cm (2–11 in) long and 2–12 cm (1–5 in) broad. Its strongly scented pendent flowers, produced in winter (between November and March in UK,) on bare stems, have 15-21 yellow or pale green-yellow, tepals, the inner ones usually with purplish red pigments.