Itea chinensis Hooker & Arnott var. coriacea (Y. C. Wu) Z. P. Jien.

Shrubs or rarely small trees, to 10 m tall. Branchlets yellow-green when dry, purple-brown when old, conspicuously striate, terete, glabrous. Petiole stout, 1.5-2.5 cm, sulcate adaxially, glabrous; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially yellow-green, elliptic or obovate-oblong, 6-13 × 3-5 cm, thickly leathery, midvein distinctly raised abaxially, slightly impressed adaxially, to 1 mm wide, secondary veins in 5 or 6 pairs, arcuate ascending, reticulate veins prominent, base obtuse or broadly cuneate, margin crenate-dentate except near base where sparsely glandular mucronulate, apex acute or shortly so. Racemes axillary, rarely also terminal; rachis puberulous; bracts linear-subulate, ca. 1 mm. Flowers numerous, 2(or 3)-clustered, rarely solitary; pedicel spreading or pendulous by anthesis, 2.5-4 mm, puberulous. Calyx yellow-green, shallowly cupular, puberulous; lobes triangular-lanceolate, ca. 2 mm. Petals erect, white, adaxially and marginally sparsely puberulous, apex acuminate. Stamens conspicuously longer than petals, ca. 4 mm; filaments slender, 3.5-4 mm, puberulous at base; anthers ellipsoid-globose. Ovary superior, puberulous. Capsule conical, ca. 7 mm, sparsely puberulous, apex reflexed.

This species differs from Itea omeiensis in having stout petioles, thickly leathery leaf blases, and sparsely hairy petals.

* Dense or sparse forests, mountain thickets, valleys, streamsides, roadsides; 600-1500 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Jiangxi.