大厂茶 da chang cha

Trees 7-15 m tall. Young branches yellowish brown; current year branchlets purplish brown, glabrous; terminal buds large, glabrous or sparsely white pubescent. Petiole purplish red, ca. 5 mm, glabrous; leaf blade elliptic, oblong-elliptic, or broadly elliptic, (9-)12-18 × 3-6(-8) cm, leathery to thinly leathery, abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green and shiny, both surfaces glabrous, midvein purplish red, abaxially elevated, and adaxially slightly raised, secondary veins 8-10 on each side of midvein and raised on both surfaces, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin serrate or undulate-serrate, apex acute to shortly acuminate and with an obtuse tip. Flowers axillary, solitary or to 3 in a cluster, 4-6 cm in diam. Pedicel 0.8-1.4 cm, thickened toward apex, glabrous; bracteoles 2 or 3, caducous, ovate, 2.5-3 mm, outside glabrous, inside white sericeous. Sepals 5(or 6), persistent, broadly ovate to suborbicular, 5-6 mm, outside glabrous, inside white sericeous, margin ciliolate. Petals 10-13, white, broadly obovate, 2.5-3 × 2-2.5 cm, basally slightly connate, apex rounded. Stamens 1.5-2 cm, glabrous; outer filament whorl basally connate for ca. 3 mm. Ovary globose, glabrous, (3 or)4- or 5-loculed; style 1.5-2 cm, apically 3-5-parted for 4-8 mm. Capsule globose to oblate, 2-3 × 3-5 cm, 3-5-loculed with 1 or 2 seeds per locule; pericarp 1-2 mm thick when dry. Seeds pale brown, globose or hemispherical, 1-1.5 cm in diam., glabrous. Fl. Oct-Jan, fr. Sep-Oct. 2n = 30*.

● Evergreen broad-leaved and coniferous forests; 900-2300 m. Chongqing, NW Guangxi, N and W Guizhou, SE Sichuan, E and NE Yunnan.