Aphananthe aspera (Thunb.) Planch.

The wood is fine and strong, the fiber is used for manufacturing ropes and staple rayon, and the leaves are used as feed for horses.

Trees or rarely shrubs, to 25 m tall, d.b.h. to 50 cm, deciduous. Bark brown or grayish brown, scabrous, longitudinally fissured. Branchlets yellowish green when young, brownish red in second year, old ones grayish brown, with distinct rounded lenticels. Stipules linear, 5-8 mm. Petiole 0.5-1.5 cm, puberulous; leaf blade ovate to ovate-elliptic, 5-10 × 3-5 cm, base broadly cuneate to ± cordate, margin serrate, apex acuminate to narrowly acuminate; 3-veined from base; secondary veins 6-10 on each side of midvein, extending to margin, each ending in a tooth. Male flowers: in proximal leaf axil of young branchlets. Tepals obovate-rounded, ca. 1.5 mm, with clustered hairs at center. Female flowers: solitary in distal leaf axil of young branchlets. Tepals linear-lanceolate, ca. 2 mm. Ovary pubescent. Drupes green or black, ± globose, ellipsoid, or ovoid-globose, 8-13 × 6-9 mm, pubescent; perianth and styles persistent; stalk 5-10 mm, pubescent.

Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Vietnam].

Hills, valleys, streamsides, slopes; 100-1600 m.

Aphananthe aspera, commonly known as scabrous aphananthe or muku tree, is a flowering plant in the family Cannabaceae. It is found on slopes and stream banks between 100 and 1600 m. It is native to China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.