Description

Erect shrub to 1m, with arching branches sometimes appearing from below ground. Twigs rounded, densely covered with sessile scales, early glabrescent and smooth, with conspicuous rounded lateral buds; internodes 2–12cm. Leaves spiral or in loose pseudowhorls in the upper ½–2⁄3 of the internodes. Blade 15–35 x 8–20mm, elliptic or broadly elliptic, sometimes slightly obovate, or rarely ovate-elliptic; apex obtuse to rounded, sometimes with a shortly protruding apical gland; margin flat or weakly revolute when dry, minutely crenulate; base truncate, rounded, or broadly tapering, very densely scaly on both sides initially, glabrescent above, scaly for a longer time beneath. Scales forming a coherent layer, irregularly stellate, slightly overlapping, marginal zone wide; centres small and impressed leaving pits after the scales have gone. Mid-vein narrowly grooved above in the proximal ½, thick and obtusely prominent in the proximal ½ beneath, often becoming obscure distally; lateral veins 2–4 per side, often obscure. Petiole 2–3 x 1–2mm, flattened and grooved above, scaly. Bracts to 19 x 8mm; outer bracts ovate-elliptic, sub-acuminate or obtuse, inner ones elliptic to elliptic-spathulate, membranous, scaly along the outside midline, otherwise glabrous. Bracteoles to 16mm, linear to linear-sub-spathulate, glabrous. Inflorescence of 3–8 flowers, in an open umbel. Pedicels 9–20 x c.1mm, very densely brown scaly but without hairs. Flowers 30–40 x 30–35mm, hanging to half-hanging. Calyx 4–5mm in diameter, oblique, disc-shaped, densely scaly, obtusely 5-lobed, sometimes with one or more lobes larger and more elongate. Corolla funnel-shaped, red and yellow, in an irregular pattern, the yellow mostly on the lobes where the surface has been recently exposed as the flower finally opens; tube 18–22 x 4–5 x 6–8mm, laxly to sub-densely scaly outside, glabrous inside, somewhat angular, slightly pouched at the base; lobes 10–14 x 10–13mm, obovate to sub-circular, half-spreading, and overlapping to c.halfway, scaly outside near the base except near the margins. Stamens exserted to c.4mm, unequal; filaments linear, glabrous; anthers c.2.5 x 1mm, obovate-oblong. Disc prominent, green, glabrous. Ovary 5–6 x 2.5–3mm, shortly conical, very densely scaly and patently hairy (the hairs obscuring the scales), abruptly contracted distally; style slender, as long as the corolla, densely scaly and laxly to sparsely hairy in the lower 1⁄3–2⁄5, or almost completely glabrous; stigma globose, distinctly 5-lobed. Fruit 13–20 x 5–6mm, oblong-conical, 5-ribbed, densely scaly and hairy, broadest below the middle, held erect.

Distribution

Indonesia, New Guinea (W), Mt Carstensz and Mt Trichora and vicinity.

Altitude

Habitat

Grassy edges of Podocarpus forest, alpine grassland or boggy slopes, scattered through open mossy shrubberies on exposed ridges. Sporadic, but locally common, in wet shallow sandy or peaty soil.

Nomenclatural History

Notes

References

Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:139