Camellia grijsii Hance

Shrubs 1-4 m tall. Year-old branchlets grayish brown, glabrescent; current year branchlets grayish white pubescent. Petiole 5-10 mm, pubescent or glabrous; leaf blade elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 3.5-9 × 2-4.5 cm, thickly leathery, abaxially pale green, reddish punctate, sparsely appressed pubescent when young but glabrescent except villous along midvein, and becoming yellowish brown when dry, adaxially dark green, shiny, and glabrous, secondary veins 6 or 7 on each side of midvein, secondary and reticulate veins abaxially raised and adaxially very impressed, base broadly cuneate to obtuse, margin serrulate to sharply serrulate, apex bluntly acute to shortly acuminate. Flowers axillary or subterminal, solitary, fragrant, 3-5 cm in diam., subsessile. Bracteoles and sepals 7 or 8, caducous, brown, thinly leathery, outside white pubescent near apex, inside glabrous, margin ciliolate; outer 2 or 3 bracteoles and sepals lunate to semiorbicular, 2-4 mm; inner 5 bracteoles and sepals sepaloid, suborbicular, 6-10(-12) mm. Petals 5 or 6, white, obovate, 1.5-3.5 × (1-)1.5-2.5 cm, distinct, apically 2-parted for 5-10 mm. Stamens 7-10 mm, glabrous; outer filament whorl basally unequally connate for 5-7 mm. Ovary globose, yellowish tomentose; style 3-4 mm, glabrous, 3-parted to near base or middle. Capsule oblate, 1.5-2.5 cm in diam., 1-3-loculed with 1 or 2 seeds per locule. Seeds brown, semiorbicular to globose. Fl. Jan-Mar, fr. Sep-Oct.

Fujian, NW Guangdong, N Guangxi, Guizhou, W Hubei, Hunan, E Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang.

● Forests, thickets; 100-1500 m.