突肋茶 tu le cha

Camellia danzaiensis K. M. Lan; C. kwangtungensis Hung T. Chang; C. yungkiangensis Hung T. Chang.

Shrubs or trees, 3-8(-10) m tall. Young branches grayish brown; current year branchlets purplish brown, glabrous; terminal buds glabrous. Petiole purplish brown, 5-8 mm, glabrous; leaf blade oblong-elliptic to oblong-oblanceolate, 8-13(-15) × 2.5-4(-5.2) cm, leathery, abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green and shiny, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially slightly raised, secondary veins 7-9 on each side of midvein, abaxially slightly raised to obscure, and adaxially raised, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin undulate-serrate, apex acuminate to caudate. Flowers axillary, solitary or paired. Pedicel 6-8 mm but elongated to 1.4 cm in fruit, glabrous; bracteoles 2, caducous. Sepals 5, persistent, broadly ovate to suborbicular, 2.5-4 mm, outside glabrous or sparsely puberulent, inside white sericeous. Petals 6-8, white, obovate, 1.5-2.2 cm, basally connate. Stamens ca. 1 cm, glabrous; outer filament whorl basally connate. Ovary glabrous, 3-loculed; style ca. 1 cm, apically 3-lobed. Capsule globose or 2-coccal, 1-1.5 × 1.5-2 cm, 1- or 2-loculed with 1 seed per locule; pericarp ca. 1 mm thick. Seeds brown, hemispherical. Fl. Jan-Feb, fr. Oct. 2n = 30*, 90*.

● Evergreen broad-leaved forests; 700-1100 m. NW Guangdong, N Guangxi, SE Guizhou.