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Gaultheria yunnanensis (Franch.) Rehd.

Modern name

Gaultheria leucocarpa var. yunnanensis (Franch.) T.Z.Hsu & R.C.Fang

Synonyms

Vaccinium yunnanense Franch.; G. laxiflora Diels

An evergreen shrub 3 to 6 ft high; young shoots and leaves not downy. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, rounded or slightly heart-shaped at the base, tapered to a very slender, slightly curved apex, finely and regularly toothed, 2 to 412 in. long, 12 to 134 in. wide, dark glossy green, prominently net-veined, of stiff, rather hard texture; stalk 18 to 14 in. long. Flowers produced in slender axillary racemes 2 to 3 in. long, carrying twelve to twenty or more blossoms, white or yellowish, the broadly bell-shaped corolla 18 in. long; anthers yellow; ovary shaggy. Fruits globose, 14 in. wide, purplish black, ripe in August.

Native of S.W. China. Cultivated at Edinburgh and raised there, no doubt, from seeds collected by Forrest, who describes the bark, foliage, and all parts of the plant as strongly aromatic with a pungent pleasant odour, and the flowers as being fragrant. It makes graceful shoots 1 to 2 ft long in a season and the racemes spring from the leaf-axils of the terminal half during the following May.

For a detailed account of this species see Journ. R.H.S., Vol. 65, pp. 319-320. G. yunnanensis and the species described below are the northernmost representatives of the mainly Malaysian section Gymnobotrys, which extends as far as New Guinea.

G. cumingiana Vidal – This species bears some resemblance to G. yunnanensis, but the leaves are smaller and more slenderly pointed, the stems sparsely clad when young with long, spreading hairs, and the inflorescences shorter. The mature fruits are purplish black. It was introduced from Formosa but is of wide distribution in S.E. Asia. In Flora Malesiana, it is reduced to G. leucocarpa Blume f. cumingiana (Vidal) Sleumer.


Genus

Gaultheria

Other species in the genus