勐腊核果茶 meng la he guo cha

Trees to 15 m tall, to 30 cm d.b.h. Bark grayish white, exfoliating. Current year branchlets densely yellow villous, indumentum persistent. Petiole 0.5-1.5 cm, densely villous; leaf blade ovate to oblong-ovate, 15-33 × 7-14 cm, thinly leathery, abaxially pale green and appressed pubescent but spreading villous along midvein, adaxially dark green and glabrous, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 15-24 on each side of midvein, slender, and raised on both surfaces, base rounded, margin serrulate, apex bluntly acute. Flowers axillary, solitary or to 3 in a cluster, ca. 7 cm in diam. Pedicel ca. 5 mm, yellow sericeous; bracteoles 2, ovate, 5-10 mm, outside yellow sericeous, inside glabrous. Sepals 5(or 6), persistent, broadly ovate to suborbicular, 1-2 cm, outside yellow sericeous, inside glabrous and brown. Petals 5-7(-9), white, broadly ovate to suborbicular, 2.5-3.5 cm, outside velutinous, basally connate. Stamens numerous, ca. l cm, glabrous; outer filament whorl basally slightly connate and adnate to petals. Ovary globose, ca. 5 mm in diam., yellow velutinous, 5-loculed, apically 5-lobed from carpels being incompletely connate; styles 5(or 6), distinct, ca. l cm, base yellow velutinous. Fruit drupaceous, globose, 5-8 cm in diam., 5-loculed with 2 or 3 seeds per locule, indehiscent, pale green becoming brown when dry, apex with a sunken hole with 5 protuberances; pericarp woody, 8-10 mm thick. Seeds brown, laterally compressed, shiny. Fl. May, fr. Oct-Nov.

● Tropical evergreen broad-leaved forests on limestone in valleys; 600-700 m. Yunnan (Mengla).