Schima wallichii

The needlewood tree is in the tea or Theaceae family and is native to northern India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, southwestern China (Tibet, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi), Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. It grows 10–15 metres tall.

• Young branches are grayish brown, glabrous, with densely white lenticels; current year branchlets are yellowish, pubescent; terminal buds are white, velutinous.
• Leaves are alternate, simple, 8–17 cm long and 4–7.5 cm broad, elliptic to broadly elliptic, leathery, 8–12 pairs of veins, margins entire (no teeth), point bluntly acute, petiole 1–2 cm long; leaves turn a brown in the fall.
• Flowers are solitary or 2 to 3 in a cluster, white, 3–4 cm across, blooming in April-May.
• Seed capsules are brown, subglobose, 1.5–2 cm in diameter, dividing into 5 sections (unlike Stewartia which have 4 sections), each containing 2 seeds, forming 5 woody valves when dry.