Description

Shrub to 5 m, minutely puberulous on the young branches, petioles and upper mid-ribs. Leaves elliptic to narrowly elliptic, 30-65 x 13-33 mm, base cuneate, tapering to a blunt or emarginate apex, mucronate; petiole 6-13 mm long. Inflorescence buds lateral, 1-flowered, clustered near the ends of the leafy shoots; outer bud scales short, inner elongate (c.l2mm long); pedicel only slightly longer than the inner bud scales, densely covered with long glandular hairs. Calyx lobes rounded, 2-75-3-25 x 1 -5-3-Omm, copiously to sparsely fringed with delicate hairs and stalked glandular hairs. Corolla white with a variable number of violet to red-purple spots on the upper lobes, occasionally with a yellow centre, puberulous on the outside of the tube; rotate, with a short tube and spreading lobes about 50mm across. Stamens 5, protruding, filaments hairy for half or more of their length. Ovary subglobose, c.2-5mm high, with glandular hairs, 5-locular; style exserted, up-curved, glabrous or with very few basal hairs. Capsule broadly ovoid, c.8mm high, verrucose.

Distribution

Hong Kong, China (Guangdong)

Altitude

Habitat

Rocky slopes

Nomenclatural History

Azalea myrtifolia Champion, Bot. Mag. 77: sub t. 4609 (1851), non Loddiges (1824). Type: Hongkong, Black Mountain, iii 1849, Eyre (holo. K).

Notes

References

Philipson, W.R. & Philipson, M.N. (1986) A Revision of Rhododendron III. Subgenera Azaleastrum, Mumeazalea, Candidastrum and Therorhodion. Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 44(1):5