Trans. Linn. Soc. London, II, Bot. 1916. 9: 94.
WFO ID: wfo-0000400601
IPNI ID: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:331925-1
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Dwarf prostrate or creeping shrub to 15cm. Twigs very slender, 0.5–0.7mm in diameter, densely covered with shortly stalked dendroid or sub-sessile stellate scales at first, warty in the older glabrescent parts; internodes 0.5–2.5cm. Leaves 3–5 together in tight pseudowhorls at the upper 3–4 nodes. Blade 3–7 x 1–2.5mm, elliptic or sub-obovate; apex sub-acute or obtuse; margin entire, flat; base broadly tapering, initially scaly on both sides, glabrous above at maturity, laxly and more persistently scaly beneath. Scales brown, flat or slightly concave; marginal zone rounded or obtusely lobed; centre small, slightly impressed. Mid-vein visible only near the base above and slightly impressed there, slightly raised and visible for a greater length beneath; lateral veins obscure. Petiole 0.5–1 x 0.3mm, not grooved, brown-scaly. Flower buds to 6 x 3mm, narrowly ovoid with an acute apex, pale brown or pink, laxly scaly outside, the bract tips slightly spreading. Bracts narrowly ovate-acuminate, laxly scaly outside and along the margins. Bracteoles 4–5mm, linear. Pedicels 6–7 x 0.75mm, very slender, densely covered with dendroid stellate scales and sparse white hairs. Flowers solitary. Calyx c.2mm in diameter, obliquely cup-shaped, shortly obtusely 5-lobed. Corolla 10–18 x 7–18mm, funnel-shaped, white flushed with reddish purple near the base; tube 5–7 x 3–5 x 5–7mm, laxly scaly outside, glabrous inside; lobes 5–8 x 4–5mm, elliptic, semi-erect or half-spreading, not overlapping when fully open. Stamens distinctly dimorphic, regularly arranged all round the mouth, the longest exserted to 1.5mm; filaments 8 and 6.5mm, pink, linear, glabrous; anthers c.0.7 x 0.4mm, oblong. Disc densely hairy along the upper margin. Ovary c.1.8 x 1mm, broadly sub-ovoid-cylindrical, densely covered with short, spreading hairs, less densely scaly between the hairs; style c.1.5 x 0.2mm, sparsely hairy at the base or to halfway; stigma green, thick-globose. Fruit 10–15 x c.2mm, fusiform, pink, shortly hairy and scaly. Seeds 3–4mm including the tails.
Indonesia, New Guinea (W), Mt Carstensz. Papua New Guinea, Bismarck Mts and Wahgi–Jimmy Divide. New Britain: Mt Lululua, in the Pomio subdistrict.
In montane forest, open grassland or alpine shrubberies, epiphytic on moss on trees, or trailing over fallen logs
R. linnaeoides Schltr., Bot. Jahr. 1917. 55: 144, f.2.
Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:147