中越短蕊茶 zhong yue duan rui cha

Thea gilbertii A. Chevalier, Bull. Econ. Indochine 21: 531. 1919.

Shrubs to 2 m tall. Young branches grayish yellow, slender; current year branchlets purplish red, pubescent or glabrescent. Petiole purplish red, 5-8 mm, sparsely pubescent; leaf blade elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 7-13 × 3-5 cm, thinly leathery, abaxially pale green and sparsely pubescent along midvein, adaxially green, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially raised and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 6 or 7 on each side of midvein, abaxially raised, and adaxially impressed, base cuneate, margin obtusely serrate, apex abruptly shortly caudate. Flowers axillary, solitary. Pedicel 4-5 mm, glabrous; bracteoles 2 or 3, persistent, ovate to semiorbicular, 0.5-1 mm, glabrous. Sepals 5 or 6, broadly ovate, 2-3 × 3-4 mm, glabrous. Petals 5 or 6, white, broadly obovate to suborbicular, 6-7 × 3.5-5.5 mm, basally connate for ca. 2 mm, apex rounded. Stamens ca. 20, ca. 4 mm, glabrous; filaments subulate; outer filament whorl basally connate for ca. 2 mm. Gynoecium ca. 2.5 mm, glabrous, seated on a fleshy shortly cylindrical lobulate disk ca. 1 mm high. Ovary globose, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., glabrous, 3-loculed; styles 3, distinct, ca. 1 mm. Capsule not seen. Fl. Nov-Dec.

Forests, thickest; near sea level to 2000 m. Yunnan (Hekou) [N Vietnam].