齿叶白鹃梅 chi ye bai juan mei

Exochorda racemosa (Lindley) Rehder subsp. serratifolia (S. Moore) F. Y. Gao & Maesen.

Shrubs to 2 m tall. Branchlets red-purple when young, later dark purple; buds purple-red, ovoid, apex obtuse. Petiole 1–2 cm, glabrous; leaf blade elliptic to oblong-ovate, 5–9 × 3–5 cm, slightly pubescent when young, later glabrous, base cuneate or broadly so, margin entire below middle, serrate above middle, apex obtuse or acute. Raceme 3–4 cm, 4–7-flowered; peduncle and pedicels glabrous; bracts linear-lanceolate, ca. 3 mm, glabrous. Flowers 3–4 cm in diam.; pedicel 2–3 mm. Hypanthium shallowly campanulate, glabrous. Sepals triangular, ca. 2 mm, glabrous, apex acute. Petals oblong to obovate, ca. 1.5 × 1 cm, base long clawed, apex emarginate. Stamens ca. 25, 2–4-fascicled. Capsule glabrous; fruiting pedicel 2–3 mm. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Jul–Aug.

Scrub, slopes, river sides. NE Hebei (Wuling Shan), Liaoning (Qian Shan) [Korea].

Exochorda serratifolia var. polytricha C. S. Zhu (Acta Phytotax. Sin. 32: 432. 1994), described from N Henan (Jiyuan Xian), was said to differ in having the current year’s branchlets, petioles, leaf blades abaxially, inflorescence rachis, and pedicels all densely white crispate pubescent.