Ternstroemia gymnanthera MD97

An evergreen shrub we collected in 1997 on the slopes of the Cangshan Range above the town of Dali in Yunnan. Very attractive species whose glossy leaves are more than adequate ornament but when combined with the clustered small curved creamy flowers, it verges on the sublime. Best for milder gardens. Even though it was 20 years ago, the memory of finding this is like a snapshot. This was growing along the dirt single track road that wound up the mountain where it was mingling in a thicket of Myrica, Rhododendron edgeworthii and R. sulphureum, Hypericum, Tripterygium and Nomocharis pardanthina. The view down to the far plain below revealed the city of Dali to the right of gleaming Lake Erhai and just to the left, the famed Three Pagodas of Dali were scarcely visible as tiny pale scratches set in a triangle within the landscape. Writing this, we are transported back and can feel the breeze on our cheeks as it blows uphill carrying the faint "Pink-Pink-Pink" of hammer on chisel from a stone mason shaping a large marble boulder he had found among the scrub and rocky jumble of the lower slope.