Description

Deciduous shrub to c.2 m high, young branches with brown strigose hairs. Leaves scattered along the shoots or clustered at their ends; blade membranous, narrowly elliptic or lanceolate to oblanceolate, to c.80 x 24 mm, base narrowly cuneate, apex acute, margin minutely serrate, when young ciliate on the mid-rib and margin, becoming more or less glabrous; petiole c.4 mm long, with strigose hairs. Inflorescence buds lateral, spaced along the shoots of the previous year, above leaf scars, 1-2-flowcred, flowers pendulous, borne below the expanded leaves; bud scales mostly fallen at anthesis; pedicels up to c. 10 mm long, with a minute glandular indumentum, and strigose hairs around the base. Calyx lobes oblong-ligulate, deeply divided, c.8 x 3-4 mm, with glandular hairs on the margin and strigose and glandular hairs on the outer surface. Corolla bowl-shaped, almost actino-morphic, c.20 mm across, with a short tube and spreading lobes, white (rarely marked with yellow), usually minutely puberulous on the inner and outer surfaces. Stamens 10(12 in rare6-merous flowers) equal, filaments c.lOmm long, pilose below. Ovary globose, 2 mm long, setose and glandular; style straight, impressed, pilose below. Capsule globose, enclosed in the persistent calyx, c.8 mm long, glandular and with strigose hairs. Seed with ligulate appendages at each end.

Distribution

Altitude

Habitat

Undershrub in upper montane forest and forming thickets in open places at and above the tree line and along stream banks

Nomenclatural History

Cladothamnus campanulatusGreene,Erythraea3:65(1895). Described from Canada (British Columbia) and the USA (Washington State). Azaleastrum albiflorum (Hooker) Rydberg, Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 1:297 (1900). A. warreniiA. Nelson, Bot. Gaz. 56:67 (1913). Type: USA, Colorado, Jackson Co., Mt Zarkel, 14 vii 1911, Warren. R. warrenii(A. Nelson) Macbridc, Contr. Gray Herb n.s. 56:55(1918). Ic: Bot. Mag. 65, t 3670(1839).

Notes

References

Philipson, W.R. & Philipson, M.N. (1986) A Revision of Rhododendron III. Subgenera Azaleastrum, Mumeazalea, Candidastrum and Therorhodion. Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 44(1):17