5. Berchemiella Nakai, Bot. Mag. (Tokyo). 37: 30. 1923.
小勾儿茶属 xiao gou er cha shu
Trees or shrubs, subglabrous. Leaves alternate, pinnately veined, with strongly parallel secondary veins, base often asymmetrical, margin entire. Flowers bisexual, 5-merous, pedicellate, in lax terminal cymose racemes or axillary fascicles; flower buds globose; bracts small, caducous. Calyx tube cup-shaped; lobes triangular, valvate, adaxially medially keeled, with a basally inserted beaklike protrusion. Petals obovate-cucullate, ca. as long as sepals, base shortly clawed, apex rounded or emarginate. Stamens dorsifixed, enfolded by petals. Disk pentagonous, thick, not persisting at fruit. Ovary superior, almost up to half immersed in disk, 2-loculed, each locule with 1 lateral ovule near base; styles short, stout, deciduous after flowering; stigma emarginate or 2-fid. Drupe 1-loculed, 1-seeded, with persistent calyx tube at base.
Three species: China, Japan; two species (both endemic) in China.
This genus is closely related to Berchemia but differs in having sepals with beaklike protrusions at the keeled adaxial midvein; disk pentagonous, not persisting in fruit; drupe 1-loculed, 1-seeded; and leaves often asymmetrical.
