瘤国茶 liu guo cha

Shrubs or trees, 1-5 m tall. Year-old branchlets grayish brown; current year branchlets pale yellowish brown, glabrous. Petiole 0.8-1.2 cm, glabrous; leaf blade elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 7-12(-16) × 2.5-4.5(-5.5) cm, leathery, abaxially pale green, brown glandular punctate, hirtellous near base especially along midvein but glabrescent, and becoming yellowish brown when dry, adaxially dark green, ± rugulose, and glabrous, midvein, secondary, and reticulate veins abaxially raised and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 8 or 9 on each side of midvein, base broadly cuneate to obtuse, margin bluntly denticulate, apex shortly acuminate to acuminate. Flowers subterminal, solitary, ca. 4 cm in diam., subsessile. Bracteoles 4-6, semiorbicular to ovate, 2-6 mm, glabrous or subglabrous, margin ciliolate. Sepals 5 or 6, broadly ovate to suborbicular, 1-1.5 cm, outside gray pubescent near middle, inside brown and glabrous, margin ciliolate. Petals 7 or 8, white, obovate to long obovate, 2-3 × 1-1.8 cm, basally connate for 3-5 mm, apex rounded to truncate. Stamens 1.5-2 cm, glabrous; outer filament whorl basally connate for ca. 5 mm. Ovary flattened globose, minutely rugulose, glabrous or white erect bristlelike tomentose, 3-5-loculed; styles 3-5, distinct, 1.5-2 cm, glabrous or grayish white tomentose from base to middle or apical part. Capsule black, oblate, ca. 2 cm in diam., 3-5-loculed with 2 seeds per locule; pericarp tuberculate, splitting into 3-5 valves. Seeds brown, semiglobose, ca. 1 cm in diam., tawny villous. Fl. Nov-Dec, fr. Sep.

● Forests, thickets; 500-800 m. N Guizhou, S Sichuan.