黄花短蕊茶 huang hua duan rui cha

Camellia brachyandra Hung T. Chang.

Shrubs 2-4 m tall. Young branches grayish brown, slender; current year branchlets brown, glabrous. Petiole 3-7 mm, thick, glabrous, abaxially grooved; leaf blade oblong to oblong-elliptic, (6.5-)12-21 × (2-)4-7 cm, thinly leathery, abaxially pale green, adaxially green, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 11-13 on each side of midvein, abaxially raised, and adaxially visible to slightly impressed, base rounded to obtuse, margin widely undulate-serrate to subentire, apex obtuse. Flowers axillary, solitary or to 3 in a cluster, 1-1.2 cm in diam. Pedicel ca. 2 mm, glabrous; bracteoles 2(or 3), persistent, broadly ovate, ca. 2 mm, glabrous. Sepals 5 or 6, persistent, pale yellow, suborbicular, 3-4 mm, leathery, glabrous, margin membranous. Petals 6-8, broadly obovate, 6-7 mm, basally slightly connate, apex rounded. Stamens 12-16, 3-4 mm; filaments glabrous, basally connate. Ovary globose, ca. 2 mm in diam., white pubescent, 3-loculed; styles 3, distinct, ca. 2 mm, glabrous. Capsule oblate, ca. 8 × 10 mm, 3(or 4)-loculed; pericarp ca. 2 mm thick. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Oct-Dec.

● Forests along streams; 100-200 m. S Hainan (Sanya).