This was an exciting new find for me at Kenilworth -- Stewartia ovata or mountain camellia. As you may know, I looooove Stewartia pseudocamellia . In fact, one of the only downfalls of that plant (to me) is that it is not native.
This species however is native to the southeast US mountains. And while it's not as elegant as S. pseudocamellia -- the bark is not as lustrous -- I am desperate to plant this on an upcoming project.
You can see the flowers on the ground above and below -- it appears we were just a week away from seeing this at its peak.
The flowers are very similar to S. pseudocamellia, and both species are in the Theaceae family, which does indeed include Camellia itself.
Sadly, the plant seems to be somewhat rare -- a brief google search came up with a few native specialists that provide 1 gallon specimens, so I'll need to keep my eyes peeled for large specimens.
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