Nova Guinea 1909. 8: 188.
WFO ID: wfo-0000405680
IPNI ID: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:333596-1
Verified by:
Shrub to 2m. Twigs 2–4mm in diameter, laxly to densely covered with flat scales; internodes 2–20cm. Leaves 3–5 large and often with 1 or 2 much smaller in a tight pseudowhorl. Blade 60–160 x 30–63mm, ovate, sub-sessile; apex gradually long acuminate to sub-caudate, acute or nearly so; margin entire, narrowly revolute; base rounded to cordate, rarely very broadly tapering, glabrescent above, laxly scaly beneath. Scales thin, marginal zone irregularly lobed, impressed. Mid-vein slightly impressed above, prominent beneath; lateral veins 8–11 per side, upper ones spreading and straight at the base, curved towards the edge and arching inwards, hardly prominent on both sides, reticulation dense, only faintly visible on both sides, or only above. Petiole 2–7 x 2–4mm, weakly or not grooved above, scaly, dark red. Buds to 30 x 15mm, ovate, acute, green, the bract points standing out away from the surface. Outer bracts ovate acuminate, c.18 x 10mm, laxly scaly outside in the distal ½ and along the margins, inner bracts to 30 x 8mm, spathulate, laxly scaly and minutely hairy outside, glabrous inside, with long stalked scales along the margins. Bracteoles subulate, to 20 x c.1mm, grooved, with a few scales outside and long stalked scales on the margins. Inflorescence 3–6-flowered in an open or almost complete umbel, the flowers held semi-erect to half-hanging. Pedicels 30–42 x c.2.5mm, densely to laxly scaly, not hairy, pink. Calyx irregularly 5-lobed, wavy, densely scaly, c.4mm in diameter. Corolla shortly funnel-shaped-campanulate, red or orange, with a white or greenish tube and triangular yellow guides inside the base of the upper three lobes; tube 10–14 x 6–7 x 12–15mm, deeply sulcate, sparsely scaly outside, laxly hairy to glabrous inside; lobes c.30 x 25mm, broadly obovate, spreading, the three upper overlapping to c.½, the two lower not overlapping. Stamens clustered in two groups on the lower side of the flower or in a semi-circle on the lower side exserted to c.10mm; filaments linear, densely patently hairy in the proximal ½, glabrous distally; anthers 2.5–3mm, oblong. Disc glabrous below, hairy on the upper ½. Ovary 4–6 x 1.5–2mm, conical, obtusely 5-angular, densely scaly and hairy, gradually tapering distally; style lying on the lower side of the flower, pale green, hairy and scaly in the proximal ½–1⁄3, glabrous distally; stigma thickly globose, green. Fruit 65–90 x 4–5mm, slenderly fusiform, laxly scaly and hairy on slender pedicels up to 40mm.
Indonesia, New Guinea (W), Main Range, from Mt Carstensz to the Star Mts. Papua New Guinea, Upper Sepik R. region; Southern Highlands Province near Erave.
Epiphytic in forest, locally common.
R. callichilioides Wernham, Trans. Linn. Soc. London, II, Bot. 1916. 9: 95. R. wollastonii Wernham, Trans. Linn. Soc. London, II, Bot. 1916. 9: 99.
Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:313