糙果茶 cao guo cha

Shrubs or trees, 2-7 m tall. Year-old branchlets grayish yellow to grayish brown; current year branchlets stout, glabrous. Petiole 5-10 mm, thick, glabrous, adaxially canaliculate; leaf blade elliptic-ovate, elliptic, oblong-elliptic, or oblong, 8-15 × 3-5.5 cm, leathery to thickly leathery, abaxially pale green and brown glandular punctate, adaxially dark green and shiny, both surfaces glabrous, midvein and secondary veins abaxially raised and adaxially slightly impressed or raised, reticulate veins adaxially obscure or raised, base cuneate, broadly cuneate, rounded, or slightly cordate, margin serrulate to undulate-denticulate, apex acuminate, shortly acuminate, or falcately acuminate. Flowers axillary or subterminal, solitary or paired, 2-3.5 cm in diam., subsessile. Bracteoles and sepals 9 or 10, lunate, semiorbicular, or orbicular, 2-10 mm, leathery, outside yellow tomentose in median part, inside glabrous, margin membranous and ciliolate. Petals 7-10, white, obovate, 1.5-2 × 1-1.5 cm, basally connate for 2-4 mm, apex rounded. Stamens ca. 1.5 cm; filaments glabrous; outer filament whorl basally connate for 4-6 mm. Ovary tomentose, 3-loculed; styles 3, distinct, ca. 1.3 cm, densely pubescent. Capsule globose to oblate, 2-4 cm in diam., 3-loculed with 2-5 seeds per locule; pericarp 2-4 mm thick when dry, furfuraceous, splitting into 3 valves; columella persistent. Seeds dark brown, semiglobose, 1.1-1.8 cm in diam. Fl. Nov-Dec, fr. Sep-Oct. 2n = 30.

Forests, forests along streams; 100-1000 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, S Hunan, S Jiangxi, Taiwan [Laos, Vietnam].