Notes RBG Edinb. 1931. 16: 182.
WFO ID: wfo-0000400684
IPNI ID: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:332630-1
Verified by:
Shrub to 2m. Twigs 1–2mm in diameter, with stalked scales, conspicuously rough with persistent protruding scale bases after the scales have fallen; internodes 2–10cm. Leaves 4–7 together in tight pseudowhorls. Blade 20–30 x 8–16mm, obovate to spathulate; apex emarginate or rounded, with a small protruding mucronate gland; margin entire, revolute especially in the basal ½; base narrowly tapering; upper surface green, glabrescent, lower surface sparsely covered with scales, paler green. Scales sub-circular, brown or translucent, mostly pale, variable in size and slightly impressed. Mid-vein impressed above and raised beneath; lateral veins 1–4 per side, impressed above and strongly and conspicuously raised beneath. Petiole 2–4 x 1–1.5mm, grooved above, rounded below, brown scaly and very shortly hairy above. Flower buds to 8 x 3mm, green becoming pale brown, the bracts with a few scales mainly outside and fringed with white hairs, glabrous inside. Bracteoles to 5mm, slender, glabrous except for a few hairs near the apex. Pedicels 15–25 x c.1mm, green, moderately to densely scaly. Inflorescence of solitary, or paired, flowers, these held semi-erect, horizontal to half-hanging. Calyx green, densely scaly; lobes c.1 x 1.5mm, rounded or triangular. Corolla c.12 x 12mm (dry!), orange, or yellow, moderately densely scaly outside, and with long patent white hairs just below the mouth inside; lobes probably reflexed but semi-erect in dry specimens, overlapping up to 2⁄3. Stamens arranged all round the mouth, dimorphic, the long filaments hairy towards the base only, the short ones along their entire length and protruding up to 5mm. Disc green, mainly glabrous, but with just a few hairs on the upper side. Ovary green, densely covered in scales and moderately densely hairy; style c.5 x 1mm, deflexed, glabrous. Fruit c.20 x 5mm, green passing to brown, cylindrical with longitudinal grooves and a persistent deflexed style; valves splitting to the base and curving backwards, straight, not twisting, placentae becoming detached from the base of the central column. Seeds reported to be tailed (not seen).
Myanmar, (Upper), Seinghku Wang and Adung Valley. China, Yunnan, Gongshan Qiqi.
An epiphyte in temperate rain forest
Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:30