Chinese Stewartia

Shrubs or trees, 3-11 m tall, deciduous. Current year branchlets purplish red, glabrous or villous; winter buds with 3-11 scales. Petiole purplish red, ca. 1 cm, glabrous or villous, narrowly winged; leaf blade elliptic to obovate-elliptic, 5.5-10.5 × 2.5-4.5 cm, papery, abaxially yellowish green, appressed pubescent, and densely villous along midvein, adaxially green and glabrous, secondary veins 7-11 on each side of midvein and raised on both surfaces, base broadly cuneate to rounded, margin sparsely serrate, apex abruptly acute to acuminate. Flowers solitary. Pedicel 0.5-3 cm, pubescent or glabrescent, thickened toward apex; bracteoles persistent, ovate, long ovate, ovate-lanceolate, broadly ovate, or subcordate, 2-2.5 × 1-1.3 cm, leaflike, apex abruptly acute, acuminate, or long acuminate. Sepals ovate, long ovate, ovate-lanceolate, broadly ovate, or subcordate, 1-2 × ca. 1 cm, leaflike, outside glabrous or basally sparsely pubescent, apex abruptly acute. Petals white, broadly obovate, 2.5-3 × 1.5-2 cm, outside gray sericeous, apex rounded. Stamens 1.5-2 cm; filaments basally connate, distinct parts sparsely villous. Ovary conical, tomentose; style ca. 1 cm, glabrous. Capsule conical, 1.5-2 × 1-1.5 cm, tomentose, apex rostrate; columella abortive. Seeds obovate in outline, planoconvex, 6-9 × 4-5 mm, margin narrowly winged. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Sep-Nov.

Anhui, Fujian, N Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, E Sichuan, NE Yunnan, Zhejiang.

● Forests, dense thickets or scrub on mountains; 500-2200 m.