Adansonia 2005. 27(2): 270.
WFO ID: wfo-0000400824
IPNI ID: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:77071328-1
Verified by:
Erect shrub to 2m. Twigs cylindrical, 2–4mm in diameter, densely scaly and warty after the scales have fallen. Leaves erect, in pseudowhorls of 4–6 together, with some cataphylls along the internodes. Blade 20–60 x 10–30mm; apex acute to obtuse, with a hooked point that often falls early to leave a small callosity; margin entire, strongly revolute, the sides often being bent into a tube; base rounded to cordate; upper side at first densely scaly and rough, the scales quickly falling then remaining rough from the scale bases, green; lower side densely and more persistently scaly and warty. Scales orange-brown, irregularly stellate, the centres small from a stalk mounted on an acute persistent protuberance. Mid-vein slightly impressed above and prominent below. Petiole 1–3mm, grooved above, rigid and rugose. External bracts triangular to ovate, caudate to cuspidate at the apex, scaly and rough and shortly hairy outside, scaly on the margin, glabrous inside; internal bracts to 25 x 20mm, obovate-obcordate to broadly spathulate-obcordate, apiculate or mucronate at the apex, glabrous or with a few hairs outside. Bracteoles 15mm, linear, broadened to spathulate distally, sub-glabrous. Inflorescence of 3–7 hanging flowers, without scent. Pedicels 20–30 x c.1.5mm, shortly hairy and densely scaly, rough with papillae. Calyx obliquely discoid, c.4mm in diameter, sub-entire, shortly hairy and densely scaly. Corolla 30–40 x c.25mm, pink, tubular; tube 23–31 x 7 x 12mm, straight or a little curved, sometimes slightly laterally compressed, hairy and scaly outside, distinctly hairy inside; lobes 7–12mm in diameter, half-spreading to spreading, overlapping to c.½, broadly elliptic to sub-circular, rounded or a little retuse at the apex, scaly outside except near the margins. Stamens irregular, exserted to c.5mm; filaments pink, shortly hairy at the base; anthers c.3 x 1.5mm, deep purple, oblong, with rounded bases to the cells. Disc 10-lobed, glabrous except at the top where it is densely short-hairy. Ovary c.5 x 3mm, ovoid, tapering to the style, densely short-hairy and scaly, the white hairs covering the reddish-brown scales; style red or pink, slightly exserted from the mouth of the flower, shortly hairy up to halfway; stigma 5-lobed. Fruit 20 x 8mm, ellipsoid-oblong, grooved, hairy and scaly, the valves a little or not curving on dehiscence. Seeds 4–5mm including the tails.
Indonesia, New Guinea (W), at the watershed between Mt Yonowe and Mt Jayawijaya, on the Longimik lateral moraine
Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:106