小黄花茶 xiao huang hua cha

Shrubs or trees, 1.2-5.5 m tall. Young branches grayish
brown; current year branchlets yellowish brown, glabrous. Petiole ca. 1 cm, glabrous; leaf blade elliptic to oblong-elliptic, (6.5-)9-17 × (1.7-)3-5.4 cm, leathery, abaxially glaucescent, reddish brown glandular punctate, and sparsely gray appressed pubescent, adaxially dark green and glabrous, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 6-8 on each side of midvein, secondary and reticulate veins abaxially raised and adaxially slightly impressed, base broadly cuneate to subrounded, margin undulate-serrate, apex bluntly acuminate to bluntly shortly caudate. Flowers axillary or subterminal, solitary, 1-1.8 cm in diam., subsessile. Bracteoles 4, semiorbicular to orbicular, 1.5-2.5 mm, crustaceous, outside sparsely white pubescent, inside glabrous, margin scarious and ciliolate. Sepals 5, ± persistent, suborbicular, 5-6 mm, crustaceous, outside sparsely white pubescent, inside glabrous, margin scarious. Petals 7-9, pale yellow, obovate, 1-1.5 cm, inner petals basally connate for ca. 4 mm. Stamens ca. 1.2 cm; filaments glabrous; outer filament whorl basally connate for ca. 8 mm. Ovary densely tomentose, 3-loculed; style ca. 1.2 cm, basally tomentose, apically 3-parted to middle. Capsule ovoid, ca. 1.8 × 1.5 cm, 1(or 2)-loculed with 1 seed per locule; pericarp thin, splitting into 3 valves. Seed brown, ovoid, ca. 1.3 cm in diam., reddish brown pilose. Fl. Oct-Nov, fr. Aug. 2n = 30*.

● Thickets, rock slopes; 900-1100 m. Guizhou (Chishui).