The campanulate calyx has five triangular to ovate lobes and the lower part of the flower has an inferior ovary that is fused.

The corolla is tubular with five lobes at the front, initially white and later pale yellow.

The matured fruit is a glabrous spherical dark purple-red berry, approximately 0.25 to 0.4 cm (0.098 to 0.157 in) in diameter.

[2] In October 1906, Takiya Kawakami and Ushinosuke Mori collected an opposite-leaved shrub at an altitude of approximately 3,750 m (12,300 ft) on Mount Yushan.

In 1911, Bunzo Hayata published the shrub as a new species in the College of Science Bulletin of Tokyo Imperial University,” with the scientific name Coprosma kawakamii, using Kawakami’s surname as a specific epithet.