子农鼠刺 zi nong shu ci

Itea chingiana S. Y. Jin.

Shrubs 5-6 m tall. Branchlets yellow-green, conspicuously striate, terete, glabrous. Petiole stout, ca. 2.5 cm, sulcate, glabrous; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially yellow-green, narrowly lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 10-15 × 1.8-3.5 cm, thinly leathery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein raised abaxially, distinctly impressed adaxially, secondary veins in ca. 9 pairs, arcuate curved upward, connected near margin, raised abaxially, reticulate veins prominent, base rounded or broadly cuneate, margin often reflexed when dry, usually entire proximally and remotely glandular serrulate in distal 1/3-1/2, apex acuminate, glandular mucronulate. Racemes axillary, solitary, stout, 6-6.5 cm; rachis puberulous; bracts subulate, early deciduous. Flowers numerous, usually 2- or 3-clustered, rarely solitary; pedicel 2-2.5 mm, puberulous. Calyx cupular or shallowly so; lobes shortly triangular-lanceolate, ca. 1.5 mm, sparsely puberulous. Petals erect at anthesis, white, ovate-lanceolate, ca. 3 mm. Stamens conspicuously longer than petals; filaments 3-4 mm, glabrous; anthers oblong-globose. Ovary superior, glabrous. Style simple; stigma capitate. Capsule (immature) brown, striate, ca. 6 mm, glabrous, with persistent sepals and petals at base. Fl. and fr. May.

* Thickets; ca. 400 m. N Guangxi (Luocheng Xian).

This species is distinguished by having narrowly lanceolate leaf blades remotely glandular serrulate in the distal 1/3-1/2 of the margin and mucronulate at the apex, short, stout racemes, and striate capsules.