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.

[3][4] Considered rare even at that time, only nine populations are known to remain in the wild (e.g. one on Tiantai Mountain),[4] all of them in Anhui and Zhejiang provinces and threatened by habitat loss.

[7] In September, H. miconioides produces large shows of small fragrant white blooms attractive to butterflies and bumblebees,[8] the flowers five-petalled, < 13 mm across.

Three such iterations have been observed.Readily propagated from either seed or by softwood cuttings, the species has since become widely available in North America and Europe, and was stocked by 26 nurseries in the UK alone in 2011.

[12][13] In the UK, a specimen 8 m high (2012) planted in 1981 formerly grew in the Flagpole Bed alongside Jermyn House at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Ampfield, near Romsey.

The specific epithet miconioides alludes to the similarities in the plant, particularly its boldly-veined leaves, to certain species belonging to the unrelated genus Miconia (family Melastomataceae).