Description

Erect shrub to 2.5m. Twigs spreading, rounded, tips sub-densely covered with flat sub-stellate scales, lower down glabrescent and smooth; internodes 2–10cm. Leaves in loose pseudowhorls, 3–5 together. Blade 60–120 x 23–44mm, narrowly elliptic to elliptic; apex shortly acuminate, sub-acute, rarely obtuse; margin narrow, cartilaginous and revolute; base broadly acutely tapering; initially scaly on both sides, glabrescent above, more persistently scaly beneath. Scales sub-dense, small, reddish-brown, the narrow marginal zone variously lobed or sub-stellate; centre dark, distinctly impressed, leaving black pits when the scales have gone. Mid-vein narrow and slightly impressed above, thick and obtusely prominent beneath; lateral veins 8–10 per side, spreading, anastomosing before the margin, faintly impressed above, slightly raised beneath, reticulation inconspicuous. Petiole 4–10 x 1.5–2mm, compressed and grooved above. Flower buds 18 x 8mm, ovoid, smooth, often lateral at the base of older inflorescences. Bracts to 17 x 11mm, ovate, inner ones obovate, obtuse or mostly apiculate, glabrous except for scales on the upper part of the outside and fragile marginal scales. Bracteoles 7–10 x 0.5–1mm, linear below, spathulate at the apex, glabrous. Inflorescence 3–9-flowered. Pedicels 20–25mm, slender, densely stellate-scaly, without hairs. Calyx c.3mm in diameter, obliquely round or cup-shaped, scaly outside, with unequal triangular teeth up to 3mm. Corolla 22–30mm, tubular, expanded at the lobes, scarlet; tube 15–22 x 4–5 x 7–8mm, sparsely scaly outside, hairy in the proximal ½ inside; lobes 9–13 x 6–10mm, obovate, sub-equal. Stamens as long as the corolla tube; filaments linear, sub-densely covered with long, patent hairs in the proximal 3–5mm, glabrous distally; anthers 1–1.5mm, obovate, apex truncate, base sub-acute. Disc prominent, glabrous. Ovary 5–7 x c.3mm, sub-cylindrical-conical, abruptly contracted distally, densely scaly, and with just a few scattered hairs, especially proximally between the scales; style thick, glabrous, nearly as long as the stamens; stigma rounded, with thick lobes. Fruit 20–23 x c.5mm, cylindrical, 5-angular, densely scaly. Seeds c.6mm including the tails.

Distribution

Indonesia, C Java, Kedu: Mts Tlerep and Sumbing.

Altitude

Habitat

In grassland or shrubberies on dry but fertile soil, very rich in humus, apparently rare

Nomenclatural History

Notes

References

Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:253