Brit. Fl. Garden ser. 2,2: t.128 (1833)
Verified by:
Much-branched shrub, usually low and prostrate, though sometimes up to 2m; young shoots covered with adpressed flattened chestnut-brown setose hairs. Leaves dimorphic, chartaceous; spring leaves narrowly lanceolate to oblanceolate, 2-3 x 0.8-1 cm, 2.3-3 x as long as broad, apex acute, base cuneate, margin remotely crenate-serrulate, ciliate, upper surface with scattered bristles, lower surface paler, with setose bristles restricted to midrib; summer leaves 10-18 x 3-5mm, otherwise as for spring leaves; petioles 2-4mm, clothed with adpressed chestnut-brown setose hairs. Inflorescence 1-2-flowered; pedicels 5-10mm, clothed with brown strigose hairs. Calyx with brown strigose hairs, especially on lobe margins, lobes ovate to orbicular, c.lmm long. Corolla broadly funnel-shaped, bright red to scarlet, occasionally rose-red, 30-50mm; tube half the length of corolla, glabrous. Stamens 5, as long as or slightly exceeding the corolla, filaments scabrid below. Ovary densely covered with adpressed shining brown hairs; style glabrous. Capsule oblong-ovoid, c.lOmm long, densely strigose.
Japan (S & W Honshu, Kyushyu)
Wooded river banks, etc.; also widely cultivated and sometimes escaping.
Azalea indica L., Sp. PI. 150 (1753)óbased on ‘Chamae- rhododendron
exoticum, amplissimis floribus lilaceis' of Brey- nius(Prodr. 1:23,1680). A.
macraniha Bunge, Mem. Soc. Etr. Acad. Sci. St. Petersb. 2: 115 (1833).
Described from China, Beijing. A. indica L. var. lateritia Lindley, Edward's Bot. Reg. 20: t.1700 (1834). Type: a plant originating in China, cultivated by Mr Knight (or the plate drawn from it). Rhododendron decumbens [D. Don ex] G. Don, Gen Syst. 3: 846 (1834). Described from a plant grown by Knight & Tate, originally from China. Azalea danielsiana Paxton, Mag. Bot. 1: t.129 (1834). Type: the plate cited, of a plant grown by Mr Tate, originally introduced by Capt Daniels in 1830. Rhododendron crispiflorum Hooker, Bot. Mag. 79: t.4726 (1853). Type: a plant grown by Standish & Noble, originating as a garden plant in China (or the plate drawn from it). R. breynii Planchon, Fl. des Serres 9:77 (1855), nom. superfluum. R. sieboldii Miquel var. serrulatum Miquel, Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugduno-Batavum 1: 33 (1863). Described from a specimen collected by Keiske on Mt Kirisima, Satsuma Prov, Japan. R. balsaminiflorum Carriere, Rev. Hort. 432, t. (1882). Type: a double-flowered form from Japan, brought by Viesener to France in 1872 (or the plate cited). R. hannoense Nakai, Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 29: 261 (1915)ó Japanese text. Type not known.
Chamberlain, D.F. & Rae, S.J. (1990) A Revision of Rhododendron IV Subgenus Tsutsusi. Edinburgh Journal of Botany 47(2):119