Itea chinensis Hooker & Arnott var. oblonga (Handel-Mazzetti) Y. C. Wu; I. longibracteata Hu; I. oblonga Handel-Mazzetti; I. stenophylla H. T. Chang.

Shrubs or small trees, 1.5-10 m tall, rarely much taller. Young branchlets yellow-green, glabrous; old branchlets brown, striate. Petiole stout, 1-1.5 cm, glabrous; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially deep green, oblong, rarely elliptic, 6-12(-16) × 2.5-5(-6) cm, thickly leathery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein and secondary veins distinctly raised abaxially, secondary veins in 5-7 pairs, connected near margin, reticulate veins prominent, base rounded or obtuse, margin conspicuously densely serrulate except subentire near base, apex acuminate or caudate. Racemes axillary, solitary or 2- or 3-fascicled, slightly curved distally, usually longer than leaves, 12-13 cm, rarely only 2-3 cm; bracts leaflike, triangular-lanceolate or oblanceolate, ca. 1.1 cm × 1 mm. Pedicel 2-3 mm, puberulous. Calyx shallowly cupular, sparsely puberulous; lobes triangular-lanceolate, 1.5-2 × ca. 1 mm. Petals erect at anthesis, slightly curved apically, white, lanceolate, 3-3.5 mm, sparsely puberulous. Anthers oblong-globose. Ovary superior, densely villous. Capsule 6-9 mm, pubescent. Fl. Mar-May, fr. Jun-Dec.

* Sparse forests, thickets in valleys, mountain slopes, roadsides; 300-1700 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang.