Description

Low shrub to 20cm. Twigs 0.75–1.5mm in diameter, covered with shortly stalked stellate scales and with very short white hairs, warty in the older glabrescent parts; internodes 1–4cm. Leaves 4–7 together in tight pseudowhorls, with fragile cataphylls along the internodes. Blade 5–10 x 2–6mm, elliptic to ovate; apex broadly acute to obtuse; margin flat and entire; base broadly tapering to rounded, initially scaly on both sides, glabrous above at maturity, laxly but more persistently scaly beneath. Scales brown, flat rounded to sub-stellately lobed and slightly impressed, with small centres. Mid-vein impressed in the proximal 1⁄3 above, smooth and indistinct beneath; lateral veins not visible. Petiole 1–2 x c.0.5mm, not grooved above, densely brown-scaly and with very short white hairs. Flower buds to 6 x 3mm, narrowly ovoid with an acute apex, pale brown or pink, laxly scaly outside, the bract tips slightly spreading. Bracts narrowly ovate-acuminate, laxly scaly outside and along the margins. Bracteoles 4–5mm, linear. Pedicels 7–12 x c.1mm, slender, densely covered with dendroid-stellate scales and sparse white hairs. Flowers solitary or occasionally paired, held horizontally or half-hanging. Calyx obliquely cup-shaped, shortly obtusely 5-lobed, c.2mm in diameter, densely scaly. Corolla 15–20 x 25–35mm, broadly campanulate, red or pink; tube 10–12 x 7–8 x 9–10mm, laxly to moderately densely transparently scaly outside, glabrous inside; lobes 13–15 x 10–13mm, elliptic, spreading to reflexed, overlapping to c.¼. Stamens distinctly dimorphic, regularly arranged all round the mouth, the longest exserted to 1.5mm or all slightly included within the mouth; filaments 8 and 6.5mm, pink, linear, glabrous; anthers 0.7–1.2 x 0.4–0.6mm, oblong, dark-purplish-brown. Disc densely hairy along the upper margin. Ovary c.3 x 2mm, broadly sub-ovoid-cylindrical, gradually contracted distally, densely covered with short, patent hairs, less densely with scales between the hairs; style 4–4.5 x 1.5mm, sparsely hairy at the base or to 2⁄3 and sparsely scaly near the base; stigma c.2mm in diameter, green or red, globose. Fruit 12–15 x c.2mm, fusiform, pink, shortly hairy and scaly. Seeds 3–4mm including the tails.

Distribution

Indonesia, New Guinea (W), Mt Carstensz, Kemarong Valley. Papua New Guinea, Star Mts, Upper Ambun Valley, Kubor Mts, Minj–Nona Divide, Mt Hagen, Gumine, Mt Wilhelm, Mt Otto, Mt Piora, Sarawaket Mts, Busu–Tamunac area, Mt Amungwiwa, Bulldog Road, Mt Ne, Mt Giluwe, Mt Bosavi, Wharton Mts, Murray Pass, Mt Victoria and the Owen Stanley Mts.

Altitude

Habitat

In alpine shrubberies and upper montane forest, epiphytic or at the base of trees.

Nomenclatural History

R. anagalliflorum auct. non Wernham, Sleumer, Reinwardtia 1960. 5: 136. R. rubiniflorum Craven in van Royen & Kores, The Alpine Flora of New Guinea 1982. 3: 1606 (orthographic error).

Notes

References

Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:148