Bull. Jard. Bot. Buit. II, 1912. 8: 50.
WFO ID: wfo-0000400442
IPNI ID: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:332281-1
Verified by:
Shrub to 2.5m. Twigs semi-rounded, 2.5–4mm in diameter, tips sub-densely sub-stellately scaly, older parts glabrescent; internodes 4–17cm. Leaves 4–7 together in tight pseudowhorls. Blade 100–130 x 50–70mm, ovate to ovate-elliptic; apex shortly apiculate, broadly acute; margin entire or slightly sinuate, flat or weakly recurved; base rounded or occasionally broadly tapering, dark green and glabrescent above, sub-densely brown-scaly beneath. Scales dense, small, irregularly and deeply stellate; centre dark brown, finally blackish, faintly impressed but with occasional long-stalked scales from the flat surface. Mid-vein narrowly impressed above, strongly raised below; lateral veins 5–8 per side, spreading at a wide angle, straight below, curved upwards and anastomosing, slightly impressed above, prominent beneath, reticulation dense, faintly impressed or raised above, much more distinct and prominent beneath at least when dry. Petiole 7–17 x 2–3mm, grooved above, densely brown scaly but becoming glabrescent. Flower buds to 40 x 25mm, ovate, smooth with all the bracts appressed, dull pale green except for brown marks at the apices of the bracts, minutely hairy outside and with areas of small brown scales towards the bract apices. Outermost bracts broadly ovate and apiculate; central bracts to 20mm, hemispherical to broadly ovate, shortly emarginate, minutely hairy outside, scaly distally near the apex and fringed with small brown scales, glabrous inside; innermost bracts spathulate. Bracteoles 36 x c.1mm, linear becoming slightly broadened towards the apex, white hairy throughout and with slender, brown, long-stalked scales near the apex. Inflorescence an open 5–11-flowered umbel, the flowers mostly horizontal but the mouth facing downwards due to the curvature of the tube. Pedicels 20–35 x 2–3mm, densely shortly hairy, without scales, except for a few distally just under the calyx. Calyx 4–6mm in diameter, disc-shaped, patently white hairy outside but fringed on the margin with scales, the lobes c.1mm, shortly triangular, obtuse. Corolla 60–65 x 40–50mm, tubular, oblique, unequally 5-lobed, yellow (or mauve; see note below), without scent; tube 35–40 x 9–11 x 11–17mm, cylindrical but sulcate and 5-angled in the proximal ½, slightly compressed laterally in the upper ½, densely shortly patent hairy outside and without scales, hairy in the lower ½ of the tube inside; lobes 22–25 x 18–20mm, hairy outside except near the margins, all lobes spreading to the horizontal, the three upper lobes overlapping to halfway, the two lower lobes not overlapping. Stamens clustered on the upper side of the mouth, exserted to c.12mm; filaments linear, densely to sparsely patently hairy below, more slender and glabrous towards the top; anthers c.4 x 1.8–2mm, brown, broadly oblong, the base obtuse. Disc prominent, deeply lobed, densely hairy above, less so below. Ovary 6–7 x 4–5mm, elongate-conical, tapering distally, densely hairy with slightly forward-pointing white hairs; style deep within the tube on the flower opening, becoming exserted to 15mm, green, densely patently hairy nearly to the top; stigma thick, lobed, reddish-brown. Fruit 40–50 x 6–7mm, fusiform, often curved and longitudinally grooved. Seeds 60–70mm, without tails c.1mm, the longest tail 3.8mm.
Indonesia, New Guinea (W), Keyts Mts and Bele R. around Pabililo and the Ibele valley, near Wamena.
Epiphytic or terrestrial in secondary forest or landslips.
Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:303