秃肋连蕊茶 tu le lian rui cha

Shrubs or trees, 1-5 m tall. Young branches slender; current year branchlets purplish red, glabrous. Petiole 3-5 mm, glabrous; leaf blade oblong, 5-9.5 × 2-3.5 cm, papery, abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 6-9 on each side of midvein and adaxially slightly raised or obscure on both surfaces, base broadly cuneate, margin serrulate, apex caudate. Flowers axillary, solitary. Pedicel ca. 2 mm; bracteoles ca. 5, covering pedicel, broadly ovate, 0.5-1.5 mm, margin ciliolate. Sepals 5, nearly distinct, ovate to elliptic-ovate, 2-2.5 mm, outside apically white pubescent, margin ciliolate. Petals 5, white, pink in bud, obovate-elliptic 7-8 mm, basally connate for ca. 2 mm. Stamens ca. 6 mm; outer filament whorl basally connate into a tube, distinct part densely white villous. Ovary glabrous, 3-loculed; style ca. 6 mm, apically 3-lobed. Capsule not seen. Fl. Jan.

Forests; 200-300 m. Guangxi (Pingxiang) [N Vietnam].