腺叶离蕊茶 xian ye li rui cha

Thea paucipunctata Merrill & Chun, Sunyatsenia 2: 285. 1935.

Trees 6-12 m tall. Young branches grayish yellow; current year branchlets brown, thick, glabrous. Petiole 4-7 mm, glabrous, becoming yellowish when dry; leaf blade elliptic to broadly elliptic-obovate, 5.5-10.5 × 3.5-5.5 cm, rigidly leathery, abaxially pale green and brown glandular punctate, adaxially dark green and shiny, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially yellowish and elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins ca. 6 on each side of midvein and raised on both surfaces, base broadly cuneate, margin widely and bluntly serrate, apex obtuse to rounded. Flowers axillary, solitary, subsessile. Bracteoles 2, persistent, green, lunate, 2-3 × 2.5-4 mm, leathery, outside glabrous, inside velutinous. Sepals 5, persistent, green, suborbicular, 6-8 × 8-10 mm, leathery, outside glabrous, inside yellow velutinous. Petals 6 or 7, white or slightly yellowish white, broadly obovate, 2-2.5 × 1.5-1.8 cm, basally connate for ca. 2 mm, apex rounded. Stamens ca. 1.5 cm; filaments glabrous; outer filament whorl basally connate for ca. 2 mm. Ovary ovoid, ca. 3 mm in diam., glabrous, 3-loculed; styles 3, distinct, to l cm. Capsule subglobose, ca. 3 cm in diam., 3-loculed with 1 or 2 seeds per locule; pericarp ca. 5 mm thick, woody. Seeds brown, semiglobose to subglobose, ca. 1.2 cm in diam. Fl. Dec-Jan, fr. Aug-Sep.

● Forests; ca. 300 m. S Hainan (Sanya).