Downy Rose Myrtle

Shrubs, 1-2 m tall. Branchlets grayish tomentose. Leaves opposite; petiole 4-7 mm; leaf blade elliptic to obovate, 3-8 × 1-4 cm, leathery, pubescent when young but glabrescent and shiny with age, abaxially gray tomentose, secondary veins 1 on each side of midvein, originating near leaf blade base, and meeting at apex, tertiary veins 4-6 on each side of midvein and connecting midvein to secondary veins, reticulate veins obvious, intramarginal veins 3-4 mm from margin, base broadly cuneate, apex rounded to obtuse and often slightly emarginate or sometimes slightly apiculate. Flowers 1[-3], stipitate, 2-4 cm in diam. Hypanthium obovoid, ca. 6 mm, gray tomentose. Calyx lobes 5, subrounded, 4-5 mm, persistent. Petals 5, violet, obovate, 1.3-2 cm. Stamens red, 7-8 mm. Ovary 3(or 4)-loculed. Style ca. 1 cm. Berry purplish black when mature, urceolate, 1.5-2 × 1-1.5 cm. Fl. Apr-May.

Coppices, mountain slopes, low hills, grasslands. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, S Hunan, Jiangxi, Taiwan, S Yunnan, Zhejiang [Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam].

Myrtus tomentosa Aiton, Hort. Kew. 2: 159. 1789; M. canescens Loureiro.