Description

Shrub to 4m. Twigs c.2mm in diameter, laxly scaly when young, internodes c.3–10cm. Leaves 4–6 together in tight pseudowhorls. Blade 30–70 x 20–60mm, broadly elliptic to broadly obovate-elliptic, sub-sessile; apex shortly and broadly tapering, obtuse, to almost rounded; margin flat; base deeply cordate, glabrescent with age above, laxly scaly beneath. Scales flat, small, marginal zone thin, wide, variously lobed; centre small, slightly impressed. Mid-vein narrowly impressed above, base as wide as the petiole, decreasing distally, grooved up to c.1⁄3 the length of the leaf, broadly prominent beneath in the proximal ½ but not strongly raised; lateral veins and reticulation smooth but distinct below, raised and very distinct above. Petiole 0–1 x 2–3mm, grooved, scaly. Bracteoles almost filiform. Pedicels c.15mm, thick, sub-densely or laxly stellate-scaly, without hairs. Inflorescence an open 4–7-flowered umbel. Calyx 2.5–3mm in diameter, very obliquely disc-shaped, indistinctly 5-lobed, scaly outside. Corolla 93 x 50mm, trumpet-ventricose, usually a little curved, pink at the base of the tube, fading to the white lobes, scented; tube 60–82 x 4–6 x 9–10mm, (up to 13mm in the widest part just above the middle), laxly scaly outside, with dense patent or retrorse hairs proximally inside, becoming more laxly so distally; lobes 15–21 x 15–22mm, perpendicularly spreading, obovate to sub-circular, overlapping 1⁄3–½. Stamens exserted to 12mm, from the mouth, irregularly clustered on the lower side of the flower, dimorphic; filaments white, linear and sub-densely hairy proximally, narrower and more laxly sub-patently hairy distally, glabrous in the upper ¼; anthers 3.5–4 x c.1mm, white or cream, narrowly oblong, base obtuse. Disc hairy on the upper margin. Ovary 7–8 x c.2mm, sub-cylindrical, densely appressed-hairy and scaly, tapering distally; style lying on the lower side of the corolla, slender, densely or more laxly hairy and laxly scaly in the proximal 2⁄3, then exclusively sparsely scaly for 3–4mm and glabrous distally; stigma thick-rounded, shortly 5-lobed, green becoming exserted to 18mm. Fruit fusiform, c.35–50 x 5mm.

Distribution

Papua New Guinea, Milne Bay District: Mt Aniata, Mt Donana. Also on Mt Dayman, (Maneau Range), Mt Suckling and Mt Paga.

Altitude

Habitat

On the edge of stunted, mossy forest, sometimes on very steep banks. Locally abundant.

Nomenclatural History

Notes

References

Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:186