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Description:
Silky camellia is a perennial, deciduous small tree or shrub growing to approximately 6 m in height (Patrick et. al. 1995). The leaves of silky camellia are borne in horizontal planes, reminiscent of flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) and alternateleaf dogwood (Cornus alternifolia). The leaves are obscurely serrate or crenate, and also conspicuously and copiously ciliate-margined (Weakley 2003). The leaves are alternate, thin, deciduous, ovate to elliptic, finely toothed, sharply pointed and minutely hairy on the undersurface veins and along the leaf margins (Patrick et. al. 1995). The leaves are approximately 5 to 11 cm in length by 2.5 to 5.0 cm in width. The young twigs are hairy and the leaf buds are enclosed by two overlapping scales that are covered with silvery hairs. From late April to June, silky camellia produces solitary, showy white flowers that are 7 to 8 cm in width and produced in the leaf axils. The flowers are produced on short stalks up to 5 mm in length and subtended by two persistent floral bracts. Each bract is 2 to 4 mm in length by about the same measurement in width. The flower has 5 sepals that are 8 to 11 mm in length by 5 to 9 mm in width and the margins are fringed with hairs. The flower has 5 creamy white petals 4 to 5 cm in length by 3 to 5 cm in width and are wavy-margined and obovate to rounded in shape. Silky camellia produces numerous purplish stamens with stalks fused at the base into a 1 mm in length tube. The unfused portion of the stalks is approximately 10 mm in length and basally silky-hairy. The nearly round ovary has silky hairs and is approximately 5 mm in length during flowering. A single style 3 to 5 mm in length is present that is terminated by 4 to 5 stigmas. From June to October, a woody capsule (fruit) is produced that is 12 to 16 mm in length by 12 to 18 mm in width. The surface has silvery hairs and is weakly angled. The base of the style persists on the fruit as a apical beak or point, 1.0 to 1.5 mm in length. The woody capsule contains 2 to 4 seeds/4 to 5 chambers in the capsule. The seeds are plump, ovid, shiny, purplish to reddish-brown, and wingless. Each seed is approximately 5 to 7 mm in length by 4 to 6 mm in width (Patrick et. al. 1995 and Porcher and Rayner 2001).
Habitat:
Silky camellia inhabits the understory of rich, wooded bluffs and ravine slopes. The species is also in the open edges of transition zones (ecotones) between sandhills and creek swamps (Patrick et. al. 1995).
Range:
Silky camellia is found from southeastern Virginia south to Florida and west to southeastern Texas (Porcher and Rayner, 2001).
References
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