弥勒糙果茶 mi le cao guo cha

Shrubs to 2 m tall. Year-old branchlets grayish brown, glabrescent; current year branchlets slender, hispidulous. Petiole 3-5 mm, hirtellous; leaf blade elliptic, oblong, or lanceolate, 3-6.5 × 1-3 cm, leathery, abaxially pale green, brown glandular punctate, and sparsely villous along midvein, adaxially dark green and hirtellous along midvein, midvein abaxially elevated, secondary veins 6 or 7 on each side of midvein, abaxially slightly raised, and adaxially visible, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin serrulate, apex bluntly and shortly caudate. Flowers axillary or subterminal, solitary, 2-3 cm in diam., subsessile. Bracteoles and sepals 9 or 10, ± persistent, green, semi-
orbicular to broadly ovate, 2-5 mm, leathery, outside gray pubescent, inside glabrous, margin membranous. Petals 7 or 8, white or pale pink, obovate, 2-2.5 × 1.4-1.8 cm, apex rounded; inner 5 petals connate for 4-5 mm. Stamens ca. 1.8 cm; filaments glabrous; outer filament whorl basally connate for 0.9-1.4 cm. Ovary globose, white tomentose, 3-loculed; styles 3, distinct, ca. 1.7 cm, glabrous or basally pilose. Capsule globose, 1.2-1.5 cm in diam., 3-loculed; pericarp ca. 1.5 mm thick, furfuraceous, splitting into 3 valves. Seeds brown. Fl. Mar, fr. Nov.

● Thickets in river valleys; 1100-1300 m. Yunnan (Mile).