Blumea 1973. 21: 364.
WFO ID: wfo-0000400282
IPNI ID: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:332882-1
Verified by:
Erect to spreading shrub to 1.2m. Twigs rounded, minutely rough with the dense covering of dark-brown overlapping scales. Leaves 5–7 together in tight pseudowhorls; 2–6cm apart. Blade 25–40 x 7–12mm, narrowly elliptic with an obtusely pointed to rounded apex; margin entire but slightly uneven, flat; base tapering; quickly glabrescent above; densely persistently scaly below, the scales partially overlapping or the gaps between scales less than the width of the smaller scales. Scales with a broad lobed and striate flange and large darker, swollen centre. Mid-vein impressed above, very prominent beneath; lateral veins 2–4 per side, wide-spreading, almost to the perpendicular, hardly distinct beneath, but moderately distinct and impressed above. Petiole 5–7 x 1.5mm, distinctly grooved above, densely dark-brown scaly. Flower buds narrowly ellipsoid, smooth, green, with brown scales only in the basal 1⁄3, imbricate. Bracts: the basal with brown scales outside, upper ones glabrous but all finely fringed with white hairs. Inflorescence of 1–4 flowers hanging vertically downwards. Pedicels 15 x 1mm, green and densely covered in brown scales. Calyx a low, brown, scaly disc. Corolla 26 x 18mm, purplish-pink, pale pink or greenish-white, without scent; tube 20 x 6 x 8mm, cylindrical, fluted and a little swollen at the base, laterally flattened, with scattered brown scales outside, glabrous inside; lobes 10 x 7mm, wide-spreading, with or without scales outside. Stamens irregularly arranged with more on the lower side of the corolla; filaments 24mm, glabrous, tapering from base to apex; anthers 2 x 1mm, pale orange-brown. Ovary 5 x 2mm, densely scaly; style 17mm, scaly in the proximal 4mm, otherwise glabrous, tapering upwards; stigma 1.5mm in diameter, green. Fruit 20–37 x 4mm, distinctly fluted and slightly curved, with the remains of the stigma curved upwards, opening lantern-like, the outer skin not peeling back. Seeds 5–6mm, without tails 0.7–0.8mm, the longest tail 3mm, distinctly wavy.
Malaysia (Borneo), Sarawak, Mt Api, Mt Mulu, Mt Murud and Mt Batu Lawi. Sabah, Mt Lumarku.
Epiphytic in mossy forest or terrestrially on open ridges
Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:123