Blumea 1961. 11: 118.
WFO ID: wfo-0000399980
IPNI ID: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:332833-1
Verified by:
Shrub to 4m. Twigs thick, scaly, often white; internodes 6–9cm. Leaves 4–5 together in pseudowhorls. Blade 70–100 x 40–60mm, obovate-elliptic; apex broad to very broadly obtuse to rounded, sometimes apiculate; margin entire, flat; base tapering, slightly decurrent, glabrescent above with age, densely scaly beneath. Scales minute, the thin silvery, fragile marginal zone variously stellately lobed; centre thick, small, deeply impressed, flat. Mid-vein narrowly impressed above; beneath as thick as the petiole and very prominent proximally, decreasing upwards; lateral veins 6–7 per side, irregular, with shorter ones between them, all spreading and anastomosing, strongly impressed above, hardly raised beneath, reticulation faintly impressed above, slightly prominent or sometimes obscure beneath. Petiole 20–25 x c.3mm, grooved above, densely scaly, semi-rounded. Inner bracts elongate-spathulate, hairy on both sides, up to 30mm. Bracteoles linear, glabrous, up to 25mm. Inflorescence 8–10-flowered. Pedicels 40–80 x c.1.5mm, very densely scaly. Calyx 5–6mm in diameter, obliquely disc-shaped, irregularly 5-lobed, densely scaly outside. Corolla tubular below, abruptly expanded to the lobes, white; tube 60–70 x 5–6 x 10–15mm, sub-densely or laxly scaly outside and with dense appressed white retrorse hairs inside; lobes 25–30 x 25–30mm, sub-spathulate-obovate or sub-circular. Stamens exserted to 15mm; filaments linear, and densely covered with retrorse hairs proximally, more laxly hairy and slender upwards, glabrous and filiform for the distal 15mm; anthers 7–8 x 1.5mm, elongate-oblong, each cell narrowed into a distinct basal apiculus to c.1mm. Disc thick, 10-lobed, more densely hairy at, than between, the lobes. Ovary c.15 x 3mm, cylindrical, densely covered with coarse yellowish, distally directed hairs which cover scales, gradually tapering distally; style 1.5–2mm diameter proximally, gradually narrowing upwards, hairy for the proximal 2/3, more laxly hairy and scaly distally, glabrous for the ultimate 10mm; stigma c.2mm in diameter, globose, with thick lobes.
Indonesia, New Guinea (W), Star Mts: near the mouth of the Minam R. into the
Bon R., also from Koruppen Valley (139°38'E 4°28'S). Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong Hill, Ok Tedi headwaters, Kiunga, Western District.
Originally from a depression on peaty ground in primary forest, also from secondary vegetation. Locally common.
Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:173