There are few reports of this Chinese shrub naturalizing elsewhere in North America (K, W). But in Ky. it has become locally abundant on or near cliffs along the central Palisades of the Kentucky River, where it may have been planted a few decades ago by one or more landowners. It also appears to have established at Cherokee Park in JEFF (APSC and J. Wysor, pers. comm.) and at Lake Shelby in SHEL (APSC, EKY: T. Weckman #9949). The earliest record from Ky. was a coll. of E. Guhardja from BOUR in 1961 (1962 M.Sc. thesis), but this has been lost (M, CW). The late W.H. Duncan developed a full description of this species, which may eventually be published (W. Zomlefer et al., Univ. of Ga., Athens). There has been confusion with fragrantissima, and these species have been combined by some authors. An artificial hybrid (= X purpusi Rehd.) has been found to escape in Mo. (Y). Both species are semi-evergreen, with flowers in Jan-Apr, and mature fruits in Apr-Jun. They have corollas with a 4-lobed lip plus a 1-lobed lip, fused ovaries (producing bilobed fruit), solid pith and broadly ovate, truncate- to subcordate-based, semi-evergreen leaves, often retaining some leaves into Jan during mild winters (J, W). L. standishii may differ as follows, but further analysis is needed: corollas and some leaves (but not fertile branches) usually pilose (versus usually glabrous except for spinulose leaf-tips and a few hairs on petioles); vigorous vegetative shoots with characteristic reddish-brown long bristly hairs (versus none); leaf blades tending to have narrower shape, with L/W mostly ca. 1.3-2 (versus 1.2-1.5 in typical fragrantissima). L. standishii may spread vegetatively by layering or underground shoots, sometimes making control difficult.