绿萼连蕊茶 lü e lian rui cha

Shrubs 1-3 m tall. Young branches grayish brown, slender, glabrous; current year branchlets reddish brown, puberulent. Petiole 2-3 mm, puberulent; leaf blade lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 3.5-5.5(-7) × 0.9-1.7 cm, leathery or papery, abaxially pale green and glabrous, adaxially dark green, not shiny, and hirtellous along midvein, midvein abaxially raised and adaxially visible, secondary veins obscure on both surfaces, base broadly cuneate, margin serrulate, apex acuminate to caudate. Flowers axillary, solitary or paired, 1-2 cm in diam. Pedicel 2-5 mm; bracteoles 4 or 5, sometimes covering pedicel, green or becoming purplish red, suborbicular to broadly ovate, 0.5-2 mm, outside farinose-puberulent or glabrous, inside puberulent, margin ciliolate. Sepals 5, green or becoming purplish red, broadly ovate to suborbicular, 1-5 mm, leathery, outside farinose-puberulent, inside puberulent or glabrous, basally connate for 1-2 mm into a shallow cup, margin ciliolate. Petals only seen in bud, obovate in bud, outside farinose-puberulent. Outer filament whorl connate for basal ± 1/2, distinct parts and inner filaments sparsely pilose or glabrous. Ovary glabrous, 3-loculed; style apically 3-lobed. Capsule globose, ca. 1.8 cm in diam., l-loculed with 1 or 2 seeds. Fl. Jan-Mar.

● Forests, thickets, thickets along riverbanks; 100-900 m. NE Guangxi, Guizhou (Luodian), S Hunan.