Trans. R. Soc. Vict. n.s. 1889. 1(2): 23.
WFO ID: wfo-0000405427
IPNI ID: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:333396-1
Verified by:
Shrub with rigid branches, to 40cm. Twigs 2–5mm in diameter, rounded, the tips densely stellately scaly, older parts rough; internodes 3–8cm. Leaves 3–5 together in pseudowhorls at the upper 1–2 nodes. Blade 20–40 x 12–25mm, ovate; apex shortly and obtusely acuminate; margin distinctly revolute; base rounded to cordate, almost sessile; youngest leaves densely reddish-brown, stellately scaly on both sides becoming smooth above but rough from the tuberculate scale bases below. Scales irregularly divided at the margin, dendroid, each on top of a small permanent paler-coloured tubercle. Mid-vein distinctly grooved and impressed above, prominently raised beneath; lateral veins up to 6 per side or obscure. Petiole 0.5–1 x 1mm. Bracts to 15 x 8mm, membranous; outer ones ovate, apiculate, with a prominent keel and scaly at the apex outside, otherwise glabrous apart from the fringe of scales; inner ones ovate-oblong to obovate or truncate-spathulate, glabrous. Bracteoles to 15 x 1mm, narrowly linear below, sub-spathulate at the apex, laxly hairy. Inflorescence a 3–5-flowered umbel. Pedicels 6–20 x 0.7–0.8mm, densely stellately scaly, not hairy at all. Calyx 3–5mm in diameter, disc-shaped, very shortly obtusely 5-lobed, wavy, scaly and sparsely hairy outside, ciliate. Corolla 25–45mm, broadly tubular, zygomorphic, pink; tube c.18–30 x 4–6 x 6–10mm, minutely stellately scaly and with a few hairs outside, sparsely sub-patently hairy inside, a little curved; lobes 8–13 x 8–10cm, obovate to sub-circular, half-erect to spreading, scaly outside in the proximal ½ except near the margins. Stamens as long as the corolla; filaments linear below, densely hairy in the proximal 1⁄3–½, glabrescent and filiform distally; anthers 2–3 x c.1mm, sub-obovate-oblong, the base very shortly appendaged. Disc glabrous. Ovary 4–6 x 2–4mm, ovoid-conical, densely yellowish hairy, the hairs pointing distally, and covering the scales, abruptly contracted distally; style densely hairy and sparsely scaly proximally, becoming more sparsely hairy and scaly distally eventually becoming glabrous for 6–8mm, as long as or a little longer than the corolla; stigma globose.
Papua New Guinea, Mt Knutsford, Owen Stanley Range; Mt Victoria; Wharton Range, Murray Pass. Said to be a common epiphyte on grassland tree-ferns, at 2840m on the Murray Pass.
Epiphyte on grassland tree-ferns
R. cyatheicolum Sleumer, Reinwardtia 1960. 5: 86.
Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:100