Description

Erect shrub to 50cm. Twigs c.2mm in diameter, at first densely covered with sub-stellate and distinctly stalked scales, quickly glabrescent leaving them minutely warty and rough to the touch; internodes 2.5–5cm. Leaves 3–5 together in tight pseudowhorls. Blade 20–30 x 8–14mm, narrowly elliptic or sub-ovate or sub-obovate; apex shortly acuminate, obtuse at the extreme point with a thick gland; margin narrowly cartilaginous, slightly or not revolute, sub-crenulate or entire; base broadly tapering or sub-truncate; sub-densely scaly on both sides, early glabrescent above, persistently scaly beneath. Scales small, marginal zone thin, lobed or irregularly crenate; centre thick, raised on low protuberances. Mid-vein distinctly and narrowly impressed above, thick and obtusely prominent in the proximal part beneath; lateral veins inconspicuous. Petiole 2–3 x 1.5–2mm, densely scaly, a little flattened. Bracts to 15 x 8mm; outer bracts ovate, with a 4–5mm long, subulate, acumen, inner bracts ovate-elliptic, with a 10mm point, innermost bracts sub-spathulate, obtuse; scaly outside in the distal part or quite glabrous; margin initially fringed with scales. Bracteoles c.10mm, linear. Inflorescence 1–4-flowered, the flowers hanging vertically. Pedicels 15–20 x c.1mm, densely covered with reddish, stellate scales but without hairs. Calyx 3–4mm in diameter, sub-obliquely disc-shaped, shortly obtusely 5-lobed, densely stellate-scaly outside. Corolla 25–30mm, tubular, sub-oblique, dark red; tube 20–23 x c.4 x 8–10mm, straight or only slightly curved, sub-densely stellate-scaly outside, glabrous inside; lobes 5–7 x 5–7mm, half-spreading, sub-circular. Stamens unequal, the longest almost as long as the corolla; filaments linear, glabrous; anthers 2.5 x 1mm, broadly oblong, rounded at the base. Disc glabrous, or shortly hairy at the upper margin only. Ovary 6–7 x c.2.5mm, sub-cylindrical, densely stellate-scaly, gradually tapering distally; style equalling the stamens, scaly proximally to 1⁄5–1⁄3, glabrous distally; stigma rounded.

Distribution

Indonesia, New Guinea (W), Lake Habbema=.

Altitude

Habitat

Terrestrial, common at the edges of mossy forest, or in open mossy shrubberies and in an open shrubbery on a dry ridge.

Nomenclatural History

Notes

References

Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:232