Med. Rijksherb. 1915. 25: 6.
WFO ID: wfo-0000400638
IPNI ID: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:332491-1
Verified by:
Shrub to 3m. Twigs 4–7mm in diameter, rounded, at first sub-densely scaly, often white, minutely warty; internodes 4–5cm. Leaves 6–7 together in lax pseudowhorls. Blade 60–90 x 20–40mm, elliptic; apex broadly acute to obtuse; margin narrowly cartilaginous, narrowly revolute; base tapering or broadly tapering; glabrescent and rugulose above; laxly to sub-densely scaly beneath. Scales flat, thin, marginal zone relatively large, irregularly sub-stellately lobed; centre minute, dark, hardly impressed. Mid-vein narrow and deeply impressed above, strong and prominent proximally beneath, gradually narrowing distally; lateral veins 8–10 per side; lowest from the base, steeply ascending, anastomosing, slightly impressed above, raised beneath, reticulation dense, not or faintly impressed above, distinct and prominent beneath. Petiole 8–12 x 20–25mm, grooved above, a little flattened, densely scaly. Flower buds to 35 x 32mm, sub-spherical, smooth, pale translucent whitish-green. Bracts to 28 x 25mm, broadly ovate, the apices rounded, densely scaly along a broad middle line outside, with fragile scales on the margins, without hairs, glabrous inside. Inflorescence 9–22-flowered, at first tightly clustered, later a lax open one-sided umbel. Pedicels 11–18mm, thick, very densely scaly, without hairs. Calyx c.3.5mm in diameter, disc-shaped, but slightly oblique, obscurely and very obtusely 5-lobed, scaly outside. Corolla 45–52mm, tubular-campanulate, fleshy, yellow (possibly sometimes red); tube c.35 x 6–7 x c.15mm, straight, glabrous inside and out; lobes 14–20 x 14–20mm, spreading, sub-circular. Stamens c.35mm, regularly arranged around the mouth of the corolla, not exserted; filaments linear, glabrous; anthers 4–4.5 x 2–2.2mm, obovoid, narrowed towards the base, each cell ending in a narrow apiculus. Disc glabrous. Ovary 6–7 x c.3mm, sub-ovoid-conical, densely scaly, abruptly narrowed distally; style c.20mm, scaly up to the proximal 1⁄3, glabrous distally; stigma rounded, yellow, deflexed to the side of the mouth, not exserted. Seeds 4.3–4.5mm, without tails 0.9–1.2mm, the longest tail 2.1mm.
Indonesia, New Guinea (W), Wichmann Mts; Lake Habbema near Wamena.
Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:294