Description

Stiffly erect shrub to 1.5m. Twigs slender, rounded, tips densely covered with stalked scales, lower parts rough after the scales have gone. Leaves spirally arranged, more densely towards the tips. Blade 10–15 x 4–9mm, broadly obovate to nearly rounded; apex rounded, broadly obtuse or slightly retuse; margin slightly or not revolute; base broadly tapering or rounded, convex above; initially densely scaly on both sides, glabrescent above at maturity. Scales round, large, sessile, marginal zone entire or nearly so; centre thick, slightly or not impressed. Mid-vein smooth above, prominent beneath, often obscure; lateral veins 2 or 3 or obscure. Petiole 1–1.5mm, slender. Bracts to 3mm, narrowly ovate, sub-acute to obtuse, glabrous, but ciliate on the margins. Bracteoles to 4mm, linear-spathulate, shortly hairy distally. Inflorescence of solitary flowers, rarely in twos, hanging vertically. Pedicels 5–6.5mm, thick, densely scaly (the scales on very short stalks), very sparsely or not hairy. Calyx oblique, small, irregularly 5-lobed, scaly outside with triangular, obtuse, lobes, to 0.5mm. Corolla pink or dark-red, sometimes yellow at the base, tubular, slightly zygomorphic; tube c.10 x 3.5 x 3.5mm, cylindrical, straight, sparsely to sub-densely scaly outside, glabrous inside; lobes 1.2–1.8 x 1.5–2mm, erect, ovate-circular, irregularly denticulate, laxly scaly outside, in the proximal ½. Stamens included within the mouth; filaments linear, slightly dilated towards the base, glabrous; anthers 0.8–1mm. Disc glabrous. Ovary c.3mm, cylindrical, 5-ribbed, covered with brown scales, tapering distally; style 4–5mm, thick, laxly scaly in the proximal ½; stigma club-shaped, indistinctly 10-lobed. Fruit 8–13 x 2.5–3mm, fusiform, distinctly 5-ribbed.

Distribution

Indonesia, New Guinea (W). Papua New Guinea (E). Along the Main Range from Mt Doorman and the Hellwig Mts to Mt Victoria, also throughout the Huon Peninsula.

Altitude

Habitat

Terrestrial or epiphytic in sub-alpine shrubberies as part of the understory, forest margins, open mossy or grassy areas, clearings in ridge forest, or open clayey ground of old gold workings

Nomenclatural History

Notes

References

Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:55