秃房茶 tu fang cha

Camellia glaberrima Hung T. Chang.

Shrubs or trees, 3-8(-10) m tall. Young branches pale brown; current year branchlets purplish brown, glabrous; terminal buds grayish yellow pubescent. Petiole 7-12 mm, glabrous, adaxially grooved; leaf blade elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 9-18 × 4-6.5 cm, leathery to thinly leathery, abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially slightly raised, secondary veins 9-11 on each side of midvein, abaxially raised, and adaxially visible to slightly raised, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin serrate, apex shortly caudate to caudate. Flowers axillary, solitary or paired, ca. 4 cm in diam. Pedicel 0.9-1.3 cm, glabrous, thickened toward apex; bracteoles 2, caducous. Sepals 5, persistent, suborbicular to broadly ovate, (4-)6-8 mm, outside glabrous, inside pale yellow sericeous, apex rounded. Petals 6-8, white, broadly obovate 1.5-2.5 × 1.5-1.8 cm, basally connate, apex rounded. Stamens (1.5-)2 cm, glabrous; outer filament whorl basally connate for ca. 1/3 of length. Ovary glabrous, 3-loculed; style ca. 2 cm, apically 3-parted for 6-9 mm. Capsule globose, 5-8 cm in diam., 3-loculed with 2 seeds per locule; pericarp 4-5 mm thick. Seeds brown, hemispherical, ca. 2 cm in diam. Fl. Dec-Jan, fr. Sep-Oct. 2n = 30*.

● Evergreen broad-leaved forests; (1000-)1500-1800 m. W Guangdong, N Guangxi, S Guizhou, SE Yunnan.