The New Plantsman 1996. 3(4): 195.
WFO ID: wfo-0001257577
IPNI ID: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:992091-1
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Erect shrub to 1.5m. Twigs smooth and rounded with a few low disc-shaped scales, somewhat striate after drying. Leaves in loose pseudowhorls, with a few bladeless cataphylls at the base of each flush of growth but quickly changing upwards to fully formed foliage leaves. Blade 18–110 x 17–42mm, elliptic; apex broadly acute and mucronate with the mid-vein protruding as a terminal gland; margin entire, cartilaginous, flat when fresh, narrowly recurved after drying; base tapering with the margin narrowly decurrent; upper surface bluish or silvery-green, at first silvery-scaly, the scales later turning brown and falling off; lower surface pale green, persistently, moderately and finely brown-scaly. Scales circular, variable in size and irregularly distributed, slightly impressed. Mid-vein narrowly impressed to the apex above; strongly and broadly raised below, less so distally but often remaining slightly raised to the apex; lateral veins 5–6 per side, broadly arching upwards and narrowly impressed above, slightly raised below, reticulation distinct when dry less so when fresh. Petiole 8–15 x 2–3mm, grooved above and with narrow marginal wings, scaly. Flower buds 8–10 x 5.5–6.5mm, ovoid. Bracts long acuminate with the apices slightly spreading, the margins somewhat irregular; central bracts broadly ovate, deeply hooded, obtuse and mucronate to almost rounded at the apex, softly white-hairy near the base and apex and also sparsely covered in brown scales outside; inner bracts spathulate with longer white hairs near the apex, margin sometimes slightly irregular in the proximal parts, with both simple white hairs and brown scales distally. Bracteoles small, linear, quickly withering. Inflorescence of 3–8 flowers in an open umbel. Flowers half-erect to half-hanging, stiffly held. Pedicels 10–14 x 1–1.5mm, green, with silvery or pale-brown scales and very short white erect hairs. Calyx with 5 lobes; 3 longer, elliptic with rounded tips, c.4 x 2mm, and 2 shorter, which are triangular with broadly pointed apices, c.3 x 2mm, all scaly and sparsely hairy outside. Corolla 10–15 x 15–20mm, shortly campanulate, yellow; tube 4–7 x 5–6 x 5–6mm, shortly cylindrical, finely scaly outside, white-hairy inside; lobes 6–7 x 6–7mm, scaly and with a greenish vein in the centre of the lobes outside, reflexed to the perpendicular or a little beyond. Stamens protruding regularly from the mouth of the flower; filaments 8 and 9mm, white or pale-yellowish, broadest towards the middle where they also have the longest white hairs, these becoming shorter both proximally and distally and are glabrous at the very base and apex; anthers c.2.5–3 x 1mm, brown with darker brown tips, very finely granular, the pores circular, apical. Disc swollen, circular, with 10 lobes, shortly but densely hairy on the upper side (the inner side when fresh, the hairs mostly in the depression facing the style). Ovary c.4 x 2.5mm, densely covered in white discoid scales (brown after drying) and patent simple white hairs, abruptly contracted distally and impressed at the style junction; style c.5 x 0.75mm, greenish-yellow, depressed to the lower side of the flower on opening, rising towards the centre as the flower ages, sparsely hairy near the base, broadening upwards to the green, 5-lobed stigma which is 1.5–2mm in diameter. Fruit 9–12 x 4–6mm, brown, ellipsoid, but with distinct longitudinal grooves, held erect and surmounted by the curved persistent stigmas; valves opening to c.45°, straight, not twisting. Seeds bright orange-brown, c.2.5mm, without tails 1.3mm, the longest tail broad and flat, often as wide as the seed c.0.8mm, the shorter tail slender and often branched near the base.
The original collections were made in Vietnam, Laokai Province, Sapa District, on a roadside bank facing east in secondary, broad-leaved forest with a few conifers.
Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:34