花茶藨子 hua cha biao zi

Shrubs to 2 m tall. Branchlets short, stout, glabrous, unarmed. Buds brown, oblong-ovoid to ovoid, 3-6 mm, glabrous, apex acute. Petiole 0.7-1.5 cm, usually red glandular hairy near base; leaf blade suborbicular to subovate, 3-4.5(-6) cm, glabrous, base rounded to subtruncate; lobes 3, shallow, margin coarsely serrate; terminal lobe triangular to ovate-triangular, 3-5 × as long as lateral ones, apex obtuse or acute; lateral lobes 4-6 mm, apex obtuse. Racemes short, 2-3-flowered; rachis and pedicels glabrous; bracts linear to lanceolate, glabrous, caducous. Flowers bisexual, 4-5 mm in diam.; pedicel short, 3-5 mm in fruit. Calyx green, sometimes tinged red, glabrous; tube pelviform, 1-1.5 mm; lobes erect, ligulate; 2.5-4 mm. Petals poorly developed or nearly absent, obtriangular. Stamens inserted below petals; anthers globose, apex with nectary. Ovary glabrous. Style short, 2-lobed. Fruit subglobose to broadly ellipsoid, 0.6-0.7 cm in diam. Seeds more than 20, oblong. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Jul.

* About 1800 m. E Sichuan.