川鄂连蕊茶 chuan e lian rui cha

Camellia buxifolia Hung T. Chang; C. lipoensis Hung T. Chang & Z. R. Xu; Thea rosthorniana (Handel-Mazzetti) Handel-Mazzetti.

Shrubs 1.5-3 m tall. Older branches reddish brown, glabrous; young branches slender; current year branchlets densely grayish yellow pubescent, indumentum ± persistent. Petiole 1-2 mm, pubescent; leaf blade oblong-elliptic, elliptic, or ovate, 2.5-4.5 × 1-2 cm, thinly leathery, abaxially pale green and glabrous, adaxially dark green, shiny, and hirtellous along midvein, midvein raised on both surfaces, secondary veins 6 or 7 on each side of midvein, abaxially obscure, and adaxially slightly impressed, base broadly cuneate, margin crenate-serrulate, apex acuminate and with a blunt tip. Flowers solitary, 1.2-1.5 cm in diam. Pedicel 2-4 mm, thick, glabrous; bracteoles 3-5, not covering pedicel, ovate to broadly ovate, 0.5-1.5 mm, glabrous, margin ciliolate. Calyx shallowly cupular, 2.5-3 mm; lobes broadly ovate to suborbicular, 2-2.5 mm, both surfaces glabrous or outside apically sparsely pubescent, margin ciliolate. Petals 5-7, white, broadly obovate, 8-14 × 5-8 mm, basally connate for ca. 3 mm, apex emarginate. Stamens ca. 1 cm, glabrous; outer filament whorl basally connate for 3.5-4 mm. Gynoecium 1-1.4 cm, glabrous. Ovary ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm; style 0.9-1.3 cm, apically 3-parted for ca. 1 mm. Capsule subglobose, 1-1.4 cm in diam., usually 1-loculed with 1 seed; pericarp green to brown, thinly leathery, splitting into 3 valves. Seed brown, globose, 7-10 mm in diam. Fl. Feb-Mar, fr. Sep-Oct.

● Forests, thickets; (100-)600-1400 m. N Guangxi, N Guizhou, W Hubei, W Hunan, E Sichuan.