Species: Ternstroemia microphylla
English Name: Small-leaved Ternstroemia
Chinese Name: 小葉厚皮香
Family: Theaceae
Description:
Shrubs or trees, 1-6(-10) m tall. Young branches slender, grayish brown, glabrous. Petiole ca. 3 mm, glabrous; leaf blade obovate, oblong-obovate, or oblanceolate, rarely narrowly elliptic to narrowly elliptic-oblanceolate, 2-5(-6.5) × 0.6-1.5(-3) cm, leathery to thickly leathery, abaxially pale green, adaxially green and shiny, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 3 or 4(or 5) on each side of midvein and obscure on both surfaces or adaxially slightly impressed, base cuneate, margin apically sparsely serrulate to subentire, apex acute, obtuse, or rounded. Flowers axillary, solitary or several clustered on leafless branchlets, 5-8 mm in diam. Pedicel 5-10 mm, slender, glabrous. Male flowers: bracteoles, sepals, and petals similar to bisexual flowers; stamens 35-45; pistillode very small. Bisexual flowers: bracteoles ovate-triangular, ca. 1 mm, margins glandular dentate, apex acute; sepals ovate-orbicular, 2-3 × 2-3 mm, margin sparsely glandular dentate, apex rounded; petals white, broadly obovate, ca. 4 × 3.5 mm; stamens 35-45, ca. 3 mm; anthers oblong, ca. 1.5 mm; ovary ovoid, 2-loculed with 1 ovule per locule; style short, apically 2-lobed. Fruit ellipsoid, 8-10 × 5-6 mm, 2-loculed with 1 seed per locule. Seeds long reniform, 5-7 mm. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Aug-Oct.
Photos used under a Creative Commons license
References:
– Wu ZY, Raven PH, Hong DY (eds) (2007). Flora of China, Volume 12: Hippocastanaceae through Theaceae. Science Press, Beijing, and Missouri Bot Garden Press, St. Louis