小糙果茶 xiao cao guo cha

Shrubs 1-3 m tall. Young branches grayish brown; current year branchlets red, slender, pubescent, indumentum persisting to following year. Petiole 2-3 mm, pubescent; leaf blade ovate-elliptic, elliptic, or oblong-elliptic, 2.5-3.5(-4.2) × (1.2-)1.5-2.3 cm, thinly leathery, abaxially pale green and glabrous, adaxially dark green, shiny, and hirtellous along midvein, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially slightly raised, secondary veins visible or slightly raised on both surfaces, base broadly cuneate, margin serrulate, apex obtuse to bluntly acute. Flowers axillary, solitary or paired, ca. 1.5 cm in diam., subsessile. Bracteoles and sepals 9 or 10, semiorbicular to suborbicular, leathery, outside ± pubescent, inside glabrous, margin broadly membranous. Petals 6 or 7, white, obovate to obovate-elliptic, 6-10 × 5-6 mm, basally connate for 1.5-3 mm, apex rounded. Stamens ca. 30, 6-9 mm, glabrous; outer filament whorl basally connate for ca. 3 mm. Gynoecium 8-9 mm. Ovary ovoid, white tomentose; styles 3, distinct, 5-7 mm, glabrous. Capsule oblate, 1-1.2 cm in diam., 1- or 2-loculed with 1 seed per locule; pericarp ca. 1 mm thick, leathery. Seeds pale brown, pubescent. Fl. Oct-Nov, fr. Aug-Sep.

● Thickets; 400-1500 m. Yunnan (Dayao).