Camellia kissi Wall.

Himalaya (Nepal to NEFA), Assam, Burma, Indo-China, W. & S. China.

Shrubs or trees, 1.5-5(-9) m tall. Young branches grayish brown, glabrous; current year branchlets densely gray pubescent to villous. Petiole 3-7 mm, densely pubescent to villous; leaf blade oblong, oblong-elliptic, elliptic, or broadly elliptic, 5-13.5 × 1.5-5(-6) cm, thinly leathery, leathery, or rigidly leathery, abaxially pale green and sparsely villous or glabrescent, adaxially dark green and hirtellous along midvein, midvein raised on both surfaces, secondary veins 6-8 on each side of midvein, secondary and reticulate veins abaxially raised, adaxially slightly impressed, or slightly raised on both surfaces, base cuneate, broadly cuneate, or obtuse, margin serrulate, apex acute, acuminate, or caudate and with a blunt tip. Flowers axillary, solitary or paired, subsessile. Bracteoles and sepals 7-9, caducous; outer bracteoles and sepals lunate, 1-2 mm; inner bracteoles and sepals broadly elliptic to suborbicular, to 7 mm, outside velutinous to subglabrous, inside glabrous. Petals 5-8, white, nearly distinct, obovate to ovate, 0.8-3 × 0.6-2 cm, apex emarginate. Stamens 0.6-1.5 cm, glabrous; outer filament whorl basally connate for 1-3 mm. Ovary white tomentose, 3-loculed; styles 3, 3-7 mm, glabrous or basally tomentose, distinct to near base or basally connate and apically 3-parted to 3-lobed. Capsule subglobose to globose-pyriform, 1.4-2.5 × 1.5-2 cm, usually 1-3-loculed with 1 seed per locule; pericarp ca. 1.5 mm thick, splitting into 2 or 3 valves. Seeds brown, globose, 1-1.5 cm in diam. Fl. Nov-Dec, fr. Sep-Oct. 2n = 30.