Novon 2003. 13: 26.
Verified by:
Prostrate shrub to c.20cm. Twigs rounded, moderately to densely scaly. Leaves spirally arranged. Blade 3–8 x 2–4.5mm, ovate to ovate-elliptic; apex shortly acuminate; margin entire, slightly revolute; base broadly tapering. Mid-vein impressed above in the proximal ½–2⁄3, inconspicuous; lateral veins obscure, initially scaly on both sides, quickly glabrescent above, persistently, sub-densely to laxly scaly below. Scales irregularly lobed, brown, sessile. Petiole 1–1.6 x 0.5mm, flat, scaly. Flower buds 4.5–6.5 x c.2.5mm. Bracts ovate, acuminate, sparsely scaly outside and fringed with stalked scales, inner bracts narrower and more shortly acuminate. Inflorescence a solitary flower, horizontal to semi-erect. Pedicels 15–31 x 0.6–0.9mm, densely scaly and hairy. Calyx c.2mm in diameter, 5-lobed, the lobes up to 1.5mm, scaly and hairy, margin with stalked scales. Corolla 15–20 x 13–15mm, red, sub-campanulate; tube 9–14 x 3.5–5 x 6–8mm, slightly curved, scaly outside, glabrous inside; lobes 5.5–8.5 x 6.5–8.5mm, wide-spreading, circular to circular-obovate, scaly outside in the lower middle part, overlapping for ¼–½. Stamens arranged all round the mouth, exserted to c.3mm; filaments 10–11mm, glabrous except for a few hairs at the base; anthers 1.2–1.6 x c.1mm. Disc 10-lobed, with dense, erect, white, hairs on the upper margin. Ovary 3–4 x c.2mm, sub-cylindrical, densely covered in short white hairs over a sub-dense to lax layer of scales, broadly tapering distally; style 4.3–8.4mm, hairy in the proximal ¼–½, glabrous distally; stigma globose, 5-lobed. Fruit 15–20 x c.3.5mm, fusiform.
Indonesia, New Guinea (W), Mt Jaya (Carstensz), Carstensz Meadow.
Growing in peaty crevices on limestone slopes and cliffs.
Argent, G. (2006) Rhododendrons of subgenus Vireya. RHS:London. Page:145