毛花连蕊茶 mao hua lian rui cha

Thea fraterna (Hance) Kuntze; Theopsis fraterna (Hance) Nakai.

Shrubs 1-4 m tall. Young branches purplish brown, glabrous; year-old branchlets with indumentum ± persistent; current year branchlets densely spreading villous and hirsute. Petiole 3-5 mm, villous; leaf blade elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 4-8 × (1.5-)2-3.5 cm, thinly leathery, abaxially pale green and sparsely appressed villous, adaxially dark green, shiny, and hirtellous along midvein, midvein abaxially raised and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 7-9 on each side of midvein, abaxially slightly raised, and adaxially slightly impressed, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin serrulate, apex bluntly acuminate. Flowers axillary, solitary or paired, 2.5-4 cm in diam. Pedicel 3-4 mm, thick, villous; bracteoles 4 or 5, covering pedicel, ovate, 1-2 mm, outside densely yellowish brown villous. Calyx cupular, 4-5 mm; lobes 5, broadly ovate to suborbicular, 2-3.5 mm, outside densely yellowish brown villous, inside yellow sericeous. Petals 5 or 6, white or sometimes pale pink, obovate to broadly obovate, 2-2.5 cm, basally connate for 3-5 mm, outside glabrous or puberulent toward apex. Stamens 1.5-2 cm, glabrous; outer filament whorl basally connate for 0.8-1.2 cm. Ovary ovoid, 1-2 mm, glabrous, 3-loculed; style 1.4-1.8 cm, apically 3-parted for 1-2 mm. Capsule globose, 1.5-2 cm in diam., 1-loculed with l seed; pericarp thinly leathery. Seed chestnut brown, globose, 1.3-1.8 cm in diam. Fl. Feb-Mar, fr. Sep-Oct. 2n = 90*.

● Forests, thickets; (below 100-)300-1100 m. Anhui, Fujian, Henan, S Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang.