Stewartia ovata is a species of Stewartia native to low to mid-elevations in the southern Appalachian Mountains

Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...

. A relative of the evergreen Camellia

Camellia

Camellia, the camellias, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalaya east to Korea and Indonesia. There are 100–250 described species, with some controversy over the exact number...

s of Asia, other common names include summer dogwood and Mountain Stewartia.

It is a deciduous

Deciduous

Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...

 flowering shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

 or small tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 growing to 5 m tall, with smooth, flaking grayish-orange bark. The leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are oval with an acute apex, 7-13 cm long and 3-6 cm broad, and turn orange, red, or gold when the tree becomes dormant in the fall. The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s are camellia-like, 6-12 cm diameter, with five white petals and numerous white, yellow or purple stamens; they appear in early to mid-summer.

There are two varieties

Variety (biology)

In botanical nomenclature, variety is a taxonomic rank below that of species: as such, it gets a three-part infraspecific name....

:

• Stewartia ovata var. ovata. Flowers 6-8 cm diameter, stamens white to yellow.
• Stewartia ovata var. grandiflora (W.J.Bean) Weatherby. Flowers up to 12 cm diameter, stamens purple.

Although not endangered, the plant does have a limited range and is considered to be rare. Mountain Camellia grows in the understory of predominately hardwood forests and tends to be found near streams, usually at elevations below 800 m (2,500 feet).