Camellia amplexifolia Merr. & Chun

Shrubs to 4 m tall. Young branches grayish brown; current year branchlets purplish brown, thick, glabrous. Petiole 1-2 mm, glabrous; leaf blade oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 9-23.5 × 3-5.5(-6.5) cm, leathery, abaxially pale green but becoming brown when dry, adaxially dark green, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins 9-11 on each side of midvein, slender, and slightly raised on both surfaces, base cordate and amplexicaul, margin undulate-serrate to subentire, apex acute to obtuse. Flowers axillary, solitary or paired. Pedicel ca. 2 mm, glabrous; bracteoles 2 or 3, persistent, semiorbicular to broadly ovate, 1-1.5 mm, glabrous. Calyx campanulate, 3-4 mm; lobes 5, persistent, unequal, broadly ovate, 2-4 mm, concave, crustaceous, glabrous, margin membranous and ciliolate. Petals 5 or 6, yellow, broadly ovate, 5-7 mm, basally connate for ca. 2 mm, apex rounded. Stamens ca. 20, 4-4.5 mm, glabrous, basally connate into a short tube. Ovary glabrous, 3-loculed; styles 3, distinct, ca. 3 mm. Capsule oblate, ca. 1 × 1.3 cm, 3-loculed with 1 or 2 seeds per locule; pericarp ca. 1.7 mm thick. Seeds brown, hemispherical, pubescent. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Oct.

Hainan (Baoting).

● Forests; ca. 1100 m.

Theopsis amplexifolia (Merrill & Chun) Hu.