小果核果茶 xiao guo he guo cha

Shrubs or trees, 1-15 m tall. Young branches grayish brown; current year branchlets yellowish brown, pubescent, soon glabrescent. Petiole 4-13 mm, sparsely pubescent or glabrous; leaf blade elliptic, oblong-elliptic, oblanceolate, or obovate, (4-)8.5-13 × (1.5-)2.5-4.5 cm, leathery, abaxially sparsely appressed pubescent, adaxially glabrous, both surfaces yellow-green when dry, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 8-12 on each side of midvein, secondary and reticulate veins visible on both surfaces, base cuneate, margin serrate, apex acuminate, acute, obtuse, or rounded. Flowers axillary, solitary, 2-2.5 cm in diam. Pedicel 1-2(-8) mm, pubescent; bracteoles 2, caducous, broadly ovate to lunate, ca. 2 × 3 mm, leathery, outside densely yellow sericeous, inside glabrous. Sepals 5-7, caducous, semiorbicular to reniform, unequal in size, 3-8 × 5-10 mm, leathery, outside densely yellow sericeous, inside glabrous, apex rounded. Petals 5-7, white or pale yellow, obovate, 1-1.5 × 1-1.3 cm, outside sericeous, basally slightly connate. Stamens numerous, 6-8 mm, glabrous; outer filament whorl basally adnate to petals. Ovary conic, densely sericeous; style 5-7 mm, glabrous. Capsule triangular-globose, ovoid, ellipsoid, or obovoid, 1.5-2 × 1-1.5 cm, 3-loculed with 3 seeds per locule, dehiscent from base; pericarp 1-1.5 mm thick when dry, sparsely sericeous. Seeds chestnut brown, compressed, oblong-ovate, 6-8 mm, shiny. Fl. Apr-Jul, fr. Aug-Nov. 2n = 30.

Forests; 100-1000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Zhejiang [Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Vietnam].