Med. Rijksherb. 1915. 25: 5.
WFO ID: wfo-0000405721
IPNI ID: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:333566-1
Verified by:
Erect shrub to c.1m. Twigs rounded, 2–4mm in diameter, at first rough with fragile, brown stellate scales, quickly glabrescent and smooth; internodes 4–16cm. Leaves 3–5 together in tight pseudowhorls, often with 1 or 2 much smaller leaves. Blade 40–70 x 25–40mm, ovate or broadly elliptic; apex shortly to long acuminate, characteristically decurved, obtuse to acute; apex often slightly mucronate with the protruding mid-vein; margin entire, broadly recurved; base broadly tapering to rounded; glabrescent above at maturity; persistently and sub-densely scaly beneath. Scales flat, marginal zone variously and irregularly sub-stellately lobed; centre dark, slightly impressed. Mid-vein narrow, strongly impressed above, strong and very prominent beneath; lateral veins 4–8 per side, irregular, spreading and anastomosing, faintly or not impressed above and weakly raised beneath, reticulation dense and prominent on both sides. Petiole 5–7 x 2–3mm, grooved above, densely scaly, held at 45° to the stem. Flower buds to 25 x 14mm, ovoid, smooth with the bract tips appressed, pale green or pink; outer bracts broadly ovate, apex shortly subulate or apiculate, with a few scales along the midline near the apex and along the margins otherwise glabrous; inner ones to 25 x 10mm, ovate to obovate-spathulate, obtuse, densely appressed-hairy outside, the innermost narrowly spathulate. Bracteoles to 20 x 1mm, linear, hairy throughout and with a few scales at the apex. Inflorescence 2–5 flowers in an open umbel, half-hanging to hanging. Pedicels 12–29 x 1.25–2mm, red, densely patently hairy and sparsely scaly. Calyx c.4mm in diameter, disc-shaped, obliquely 5- angular, densely hairy. Corolla 35–40 x 35–40mm, tubular below, expanded distally, oblique, dark to light red, without scent; tube 20–26 x 7–8 x 10–13mm, curved, laxly to densely, shortly patently hairy all over, outside and at the base inside; lobes 15–16 x 14–18mm, sub-circular, slightly retuse, spreading horizontally, overlapping ½–2⁄3, hairy outside in the basal central region. Stamens tightly clustered on the upper side of the mouth, exserted to 8mm; filaments red, filiform, hairy in the proximal 1⁄3–½; anthers 2–3 x 1–1.5mm, brown. Disc densely hairy at the upper margin only. Ovary 5–6 x 2.5–3mm, sub-ovoid-cylindrical, densely patently white hairy, the hairs covering scales, gradually tapering distally; style white patent-hairy almost to the top, without scales, held on the upper side of the corolla tube; stigma broad, distinctly lobed. Fruit 25–35 x 4–5mm, fusiform, persistently hairy. Seeds 5mm, without tails 0.9mm, the longest tail 2.4mm.
Indonesia, New Guinea (W), Wissel Lakes region, Oranje and Nassau Mts, Mt Trichora. Papua New Guinea, Eastern Highlands.
Epiphytic in moss forest
Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:302