Description

Shrub to 1m. Twigs 1–1.5mm, slender, rounded, tips laxly scaly and sometimes shortly patently hairy; internodes 1–5cm. Leaves 6–15 together in loose pseudowhorls. Blade 15–27 x 5–12mm, spathulate-elliptic to obovate; apex broadly acute to obtuse or broadly acute; margin flat or slightly revolute when dry, minutely crenulate; base long-tapering; glabrous and shiny above; laxly to sub-densely and persistently scaly beneath. Scales with the marginal zone irregularly lobed; centre small, impressed. Mid-vein narrowly impressed above, flat or slightly raised in the proximal ½ beneath; lateral veins obscure. Petiole 0.5–2.5 x 1mm, weakly to distinctly grooved above, laxly scaly. Flower buds to 16 x 6mm, ovoid with an acute, subulate point, glossy green flushed with red. Bracts to 14 x 3mm, narrowly ovate-acuminate or elliptic, shortly subulate, membranous, glabrous. Bracteoles c.5mm, linear-spathulate. Flowers solitary, occasionally paired, stiffly held, horizontal to half-hanging. Pedicels 4–6 x c.2mm, densely, shortly, patently hairy and scaly. Calyx c.2.5mm in diameter, disc-shaped, obscurely obtusely 5-lobed, sparsely scaly and hairy. Corolla 12–16 x 8–9mm, tubular, red or orange; tube 7–15 x 4–6 x 4–5mm, straight, laxly scaly outside, laxly hairy in the proximal ½ inside; lobes 3–4 x 3–4mm, sub-erect, ovate to sub-circular. Stamens slightly dimorphic, as long as the corolla tube, arranged regularly in the mouth of the corolla; filaments flat, linear, laxly patently hairy in the proximal ½; anthers 1mm, obovoid. Disc low, glabrous. Ovary 4–5 x c.2.5mm, sub-ovoid-cylindrical, densely hairy and scaly (the scales covered by the hairs), abruptly contracted distally; style c.4mm, columnar, glabrous, central or lying on the lower side of the mouth. Fruit 20–25 x 3.5–4.5mm, fusiform, with a short sub-persistent style, laxly hairy and scaly. Seeds narrow-fusiform, c.3mm including the long tails.

Distribution

Philippines, Mindanao, Mt Apo, Camiguin Is., Mt Hibok-hibok; Palawan, Mt Mantalingajan. Malaysia (Borneo), Sarawak, Mt Penrissen, Mt Mulu, Kelabit Highlands (4th Div.), Baru Laga Plateau (7th Div.). Sabah, Mt Kinabalu, Mt Alab, Mt Lotung. Indonesia, Sulawesi, Mt Sojol; Maluku, Mt Binaia.

Altitude

Habitat

Mostly epiphytic in primary montane forest on mountain ridges, also in heath-forest, and colonising roadsides and landslips, locally common.

Nomenclatural History

R. cuneifolium Stapf var. subspathulatum Ridl., J. Str. Br. R. As. Soc. 1900. 33: 23. R. galioides J.J.Sm., Bull. Jard. Bot. Buit. III, 1935. 13: 445.

Notes

References

Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:213