Blumea 1961. 11: 120.
WFO ID: wfo-0000405489
IPNI ID: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:333217-1
Verified by:
Shrub to 2m. Twigs slender, c.2mm in diameter, sub-densely scaly, early glabrescent; internodes 1–4cm. Leaves c.3 together in pseudowhorls. Blade 40–65 x 25–42mm, elliptic; apex broadly tapering to rounded; margin narrowly revolute; base broadly obtusely tapering to rounded, sub-densely scaly initially on both sides, early glabrescent above, more persistently scaly beneath, smooth to the touch. Scales sub-dendroid, each on top of a minute epidermal tubercle, small, marginal zone deeply stellate-incised; centre minute, deepened and elongated into a shorter or longer foot. Mid-vein above very narrowly impressed; beneath as wide as the petiole and strongly raised proximally, gradually narrowed and less prominent upwards, longitudinally striate; lateral veins c.5 per side, spreading, straight, weakly or not impressed above, slightly raised beneath, without reticulation. Petiole 6–10 x 1–1.5mm. Flower buds 23 x 8mm, elongate-ovoid. Outer bracts 4mm, inner ones gradually larger, up to 15mm, sub-densely covered with sessile scales in the upper outer part, fringed with scales. Bracteoles linear, to 10mm. Inflorescence c.6-flowered, glabrous in all outer parts. Pedicels 5–8mm, slender, finely short-hairy. Calyx c.2.5mm in diameter, oblique, disc-shaped, irregularly 5-lobed, lobes broadly triangular, sub-acute, fringed with long whitish hairs, becoming reflexed. Corolla trumpet-shaped, white; tube 20–23 x 3 x 3mm, sub-densely covered with retrorse white hairs almost to the mouth inside; lobes 8–10 x 3–4mm, narrow-spathulate, horizontally spreading. Stamens very unequal, up to 35mm, the shortest hardly exserted, the longest strongly exserted from the mouth; filaments filiform, densely covered with white retrorse hairs almost to the top; anthers narrowly oblong, c.3 x 0.7mm, cells sub-apiculate at base. Disc glabrous at the very base, hairy above. Ovary 5–6 x c.1.5mm, elongate-cylindric, densely covered with appressed, forwardly directed hairs and scales (which are almost hidden by the hairs), gradually narrowed distally; style slender, a little longer than the corolla tube, densely hairy proximally, more laxly so and more distinctly scaly upwards, finally glabrous; stigma globose, 5-lobed.
Papua New Guinea, Morobe District, range above Markham Point near Lae.
Epiphytic shrub
Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:183