华白珠 hua bai zhu

Shrubs procumbent, (2.5–)5–15 cm tall, much branched below. Twigs densely brown hispidulous, rarely white tomentulose. Leaves dense; petiole 0.5–1.5 mm; leaf blade elliptic or elliptic-oblong, 0.6–1.6 cm × 2–6 mm, leathery, glabrous, or abaxially scattered hispidulous on midvein, midvein slightly raised abaxially, other veins inconspicuous, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin slightly recurved, serrulate, apex acute, sometimes mucronulate. Flowers solitary, axillary. Pedicel 1–2 mm; bracts absent; bracteoles 2, apical, suborbicular, 2–2.5 mm, leathery. Calyx lobes broadly ovate or ovate-triangular, ca. 2 mm, margin densely white ciliolate. Corolla white, urceolate to shortly tubular, 4–5 mm, glabrous; lobes erect or recurved, oblong, 2–2.5 mm. Stamens ca. 2 mm; filaments dilated to orbicular at middle, papillate; thecae 2-awned. Ovary glabrous. Calyx at fruiting dark blue or white; capsule depressed-globose, 5–8(–10) mm in diam., glabrous. Fl. May–Jul, fr. Aug–Sep.

Abies forests, Rhododendron thickets, alpine thicket-meadows, peaty stony meadows, stony slopes, rocky places in mountains, humus-covered boulders, open ledges of cliffs; 3000–4300 m. NW Sichuan, SE Xizang, C and NW Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India (Assam), N Myanmar, Sikkim].

Lower Taxa

• Gaultheria sinensis var. nivea J. Anthony
• Gaultheria sinensis var. sinensis