It is native to India, Nepal, northeastern Australia (Queensland), New Guinea, the Philippines, southern China and Taiwan.

[3][4][1] They grow as evergreen shrubs or trees to 3–23 m (10–75 ft) tall.

The flowers are white or yellow, produced in panicles 2.5–12 cm (1.0–4.7 in) long.

[3][5] Sometimes the species is treated in the segregate genus Linociera, though this does not differ from Chionanthus in any character other than leaf persistence, not a taxonomically significant character.

This observation is interesting, and is the more valuable in that the vegetable foods of our indigenous fauna have very rarely been botanically determined.