Reinwardtia 1960. 5: 201.
WFO ID: wfo-0000403025
IPNI ID: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:332222-1
Verified by:
Shrub or small tree to 3m, growing with dense-packed, slender stems. Twigs 2–4mm in diameter, rounded, densely covered with sub-stellate reddish-brown scales when young; internodes 3–12cm. Leaves 2–5 together in pseudowhorls. Blade 80–170 x 20–55mm, elliptic; apex elongate, sometimes abruptly acuminate, sub-acute; margin flat or very slightly revolute; base broadly and acutely tapering, (never rounded), sometimes the sides unequal, sub-persistently scaly above, minutely rugose by inflated epidermis cells, persistently laxly to sub-densely scaly beneath. Scales minute, marginal zone sub-stellately lobed; centres small and slightly impressed. Mid-vein very narrow and distinctly depressed above, as thick as the petiole, and strongly prominent beneath, often more densely scaly than the surrounding leaf; lateral veins 10–14 per side, spreading at almost 90°, straight below, curved and obscurely anastomosing before the margin, with additional less distinct veins, parallel, faintly impressed above, minutely raised or inconspicuous beneath, reticulation dense, visible above only. Petiole 10–15 x 1.5–2mm, flattened and grooved above, densely scaly. Bracts to 20 x 7mm; outer bracts narrowly ovate-acuminate, extended at the apex into a fine sharp point, scaly along the outside middle line distally, glabrous at the margin, inner bracts much narrower, nearly linear. Bracteoles c.15mm, filiform, laxly scaly. Inflorescence 3–5-flowered, an open umbel, the flowers semi-erect. Pedicels 10–20 x c.1mm, laxly sub-stellately scaly, not hairy. Calyx c.4mm in diameter, obliquely disc-shaped, shortly and bluntly 5-lobed, densely scaly outside. Corolla 50–65mm, funnel-shaped, bright red with purplish-pink flushed throat, lobed to c.1⁄3; tube 30–40 x 4–5 x c.15mm, lobed at the base, laxly minutely sub-stellately scaly outside, laxly short-hairy in the proximal ½ inside; lobes 20–27 x 15–24mm, half-spreading, broadly obovate-spathulate or sub-circular. Stamens unequal, exserted to c.10mm; filaments linear, sub-densely papillose-hairy proximally, papillose in the middle, glabrous in the distal 1⁄3; anthers 3–3.5 x c.1mm, oblong. Disc glabrous below, shortly hairy on the upper margin. Ovary 7–8 x c.2mm, sub-cylindrical, greyish long-hairy with distally directed hairs and densely scaly (the scales covered by the hairs), abruptly contracted distally; style thick, densely sub-patently hairy nearly to the top, less densely scaly, nearly as long as the corolla; stigma thick-rounded. Fruit c.80 x 4mm, narrowly cylindrical, curved, laxly hairy and densely scaly.
Malaysia (Borneo), Sarawak and Sabah. Brunei.
Mostly terrestrial in swampy jungle or white sand podsols at low elevations in shaded habitats.
R. gracile (non Low ex Lindl.) Beccari, Malesia 1878. I: 203.
Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:271