五室连蕊茶 wu shi lian rui cha

Shrubs or trees, 2-6 m tall. Young branches grayish brown, glabrous; current year branchlets yellow pubescent. Petiole 3-5 mm, pubescent; leaf blade oblong-elliptic to elliptic, 7-12 × 3-4 cm, thinly leathery, abaxially pale green and sparsely pilose, adaxially dark green and hirtellous along midvein, midvein abaxially raised and adaxially visible to slightly raised, secondary veins 8-10 on each side of midvein, abaxially ± raised, and adaxially visible to slightly impressed, reticulate veins adaxially visible to slightly impressed, base broadly cuneate, margin serrulate, apex caudate. Flowers axillary or subterminal, solitary or paired. Pedicel 2-3 mm; bracteoles 4 or 5, persistent, broadly triangular to ovate, 1-1.5 mm, outside grayish villous, inside glabrous, margin ciliolate. Calyx cupular; lobes 5, broadly ovate to suborbicular, 2-3 mm, outside densely grayish villous, inside glabrous, basally connate for ca. 1 mm. Petals 5-7, white, broadly obovate to obovate-elliptic, 1.5-1.7 cm, outside villous toward apex, basally connate for ca. 4 mm, apex rounded to retuse. Stamens 1.2-1.5 cm, glabrous; outer filament whorl basally connate for 6-7 mm. Ovary ovoid, glabrous, (4 or)5-loculed; style 1.5-1.7 cm, (4 or)5-parted for 7-9 mm. Capsule globose, ca. 2 cm in diam., 1-loculed with 1 seed; pericarp ca. 1 mm thick. Seed brown, globose, ca. 1.7 cm in diam. Fl. Feb-Mar, fr. Aug-Sep.

● Forests; ca. 1500 m. Yunnan (Hekou, Yuanjiang).