大苞茶 da bao cha

Trees 6-12 m tall. Young branches pale brown, glabrous; current year branchlets gray pubescent; terminal buds white sericeous. Petiole ca. 5 mm, pubescent; leaf blade elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 10-14 × 4-5.5 cm, thinly leathery, abaxially pale green and sparsely pubescent, adaxially dark green, glabrous, and shiny, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially flat, secondary veins 8-10 on each side of midvein, abaxially raised, and adaxially visible, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin serrulate, apex acute to shortly acuminate. Flowers axillary, solitary or paired, 4-5 cm in diam. Pedicel 6-7 mm, thickened toward apex, pubescent; bracteoles 2, ovate, ca. 4 mm. Sepals 5, ovate, 5-6 mm, outside glabrous, inside white sericeous. Petals 7-9, white, obovate, 2-2.5 cm; inner 5 petals basally connate. Stamens ca. 1 cm, glabrous; outer filament whorl basally connate for ca. 4 mm. Ovary globose, glabrous, 5-loculed; style ca. 1.5 cm, apically 5-lobed. Capsule oblate, ca. 2 × 3-4 cm, 5-loculed with 1 seed per locule; pericarp 1-2 mm thick when dry. Seeds brown, globose, ca. 1 cm in diam. Fl. Nov, fr. Sep. 2n = 30*.

● Near villages; 1700-1900 m. Yunnan (Yunxian).