Nova Guinea 1914. 12: 135, t.32.
WFO ID: wfo-0000400703
IPNI ID: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:332581-1
Verified by:
Shrub to 2.5m. Twigs 2–5mm in diameter, rounded, sub-densely covered when young with fragile, sub-stellate, reddish-brown scales, later glabrous and smooth; internodes 2–18cm. Leaves 4–8 together in pseudowhorls. Blade 40–105 x 20–42mm, elliptic, or obovate-elliptic; apex broadly tapering or shortly sub-acuminate, obtuse to nearly rounded; margin slightly revolute; base broadly tapering, sub-truncate to rounded, rarely sub-cordate; glabrescent above when mature, densely and more persistently scaly beneath. Scales small, variously sub-stellate-lobed in the marginal zone; centres dark, slightly impressed, scale pits black and shallow. Mid-vein slightly impressed above, thick and prominent in the proximal part beneath; lateral veins 6–10 per side, spreading, straight below, curved and indistinctly anastomosing before the margin, slightly raised on both sides, or a little impressed above, reticulation obscure. Petiole 4–16 x 1.5–2.5mm, semi-rounded, grooved above, scaly and rugulose. Bracts to 15 x 8mm, ovate to obovate, obtuse, firm-membranous, with some sparse scales at the top outside or quite glabrous. Bracteoles to 22 x 1.5mm, linear below, sub-spathulate apically, glabrous. Inflorescence 5–9-flowered. Pedicels 30–40 x 0.6–0.8mm, sparsely stellate-scaly proximally, more densely so distally. Calyx c.4mm in diameter, oblique, disc-shaped, 5-angular, outside densely scaly. Corolla 44–50mm, tubular below, sub-oblique, red, membranous; tube 20–30 x 6–7 x 7–8mm, laxly to sub-densely scaly outside, lobed at the base, shortly hairy in the proximal ½ inside; lobes 9–17 x 10–12mm, obliquely obovate-spathulate. Stamens slightly shorter than the corolla; filaments linear, densely hairy proximally, less so distally; anthers 3.5–4 x 1mm, oblong, obtuse at the base. Disc shortly hairy on the upper margin, glabrous below. Ovary c.8 x 2.5mm, sub-cylindrical, densely stellate-scaly, with some spreading hairs at the top between the scales, gradually tapering distally; style as long as the corolla tube, laxly scaly and sub-densely patently hairy in the proximal 10–15mm, glabrous distally; stigma deeply 5-lobed. Fruit 35–40 x 4–5mm, sub-cylindrical, sub-densely covered with red-brown scales.
Indonesia, New Guinea (W), Vogelkop Peninsula, Arfak Mts, Nettoti Range, Mt Watjetoni.
Terrestrial or occasionally epiphytic in light mossy forest in poor humus or sandy soil, or in swampy places with Sphagnum.
Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:311