Description

Small shrub, usually up to 0-6 m, rarely taller; leaf-bud scales usually persistent but not very conspicuous. Leaves oblong to ovate or almost orbicular, 11-17 x 6-9 mm, rounded or tapered to the base, rounded to the slightly mucronate apex, dark green or brownish and elepidote above, dark chocolate-brown beneath with dense, overlapping scales borne in 2-3 tiers, those of the lowermost tier as dark as, or darker than, the others. Inflorescence dense, many-flowered. Calyx lobes 5-6 mm, oblong, narrowly elliptic or obovate, densely lepidote outside, ciliate with long, loriform cilia and pubescent inside. Corolla white or pink, rarely yellowish, tube 4.5-11 -5 mm, lobes 3.5-6 mm, tube laxly to densely pilose outside, mouth of the tube densely pilose inside. Stamens 5-6. Ovary lepidote or lepidote and rather sparsely puberulent. Capsule very small ** * Rhododendron laudandum * var. * laudandum * ** ** * Rhododendron laudandum * var. * temoense * **

Distribution

Altitude

Habitat

Nomenclatural History

Notes

References

Cullen, J. (1980) A Revision of Rhododendron 1: Subgenus Rhododendron sections Rhododendron & Pogonanthum. Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 39(1):160