Endemic to China, this species was discovered for Western horticulture in 1907 by the British plant hunter Ernest Wilson on behalf of the Arnold Arboretum. It was growing on mountain cliffs at 'Hsing-Shan Hsien' in present day Xingshan County in the west of Hubei Province in central China. Considered rare even at that time, only nine populations are known to remain in the wild (e.g. one on Tiantai Mountain), all of them in Anhui and Zhejiang provinces and threatened by habitat loss. The species is now under second-class national protection in China. The Sino-American Botanical Expedition of 1980 collected viable seeds and sent them to the Arnold Arboretum where it was found to be readily cultivated. The plant is now grown as an ornamental around the