Shrub to small tree. Branches hairy or not. Leaves variable, mostly 4-8 cm long and to 4 cm wide. Flowers white, fragrant. Petals 5-7, more or less free, with 2 lobes at the tip. Stamens in 3-5 rows. Styles mostly 3-parted. Ovary hairy. Fruit wall thick and woody, to about 4 cm wide. [C. drupifera Lour.]
Widely cultivated in China.
The seeds yield an oil of wide use in China and south-east Asia for cooking, lighting and soap manufacture.
China, SE Asia
Similar to and closely related to C. sasanqua but with leaves slightly rough, obovate to elliptic, sometimes slightly hairy below, thick and leathery, 3-4 cm wide. Camellia confusa differs in having rough bracts and sepals and minute capsules with only 1 seed. [C. oleifera var. confusa] It also has large, pale drooping leaves. C. grijsii Hance is occasionally cultivated and is similar to C. confusa but with oblong, sharply toothed leaves.
Source: (1997). Camellia. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
