Rhododendron aperantum Balf. f. & Ward

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron aperantum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-aperantum/). Accessed 2024-03-19.

Genus

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
corolla
The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
ovary
Lowest part of the carpel containing the ovules; later developing into the fruit.
apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
bud
Immature shoot protected by scales that develops into leaves and/or flowers.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
glandular
Bearing glands.
glaucous
Grey-blue often from superficial layer of wax (bloom).
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron aperantum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-aperantum/). Accessed 2024-03-19.

Dwarf shrub, 0.3–0.6(–1.5) m; bud scales persistent. Leaves 3–6.5 × 1.4–2.4 cm, obovate to oblanceolate, lower surface with a glaucous, papillate epidermis, usually glabrous at maturity though sometimes with vestiges of a red-brown or whitish dendroid indumentum that usually persists on the main veins and midrib. Flowers 4–6, in a lax truss; calyx cupular, 3–6 mm; corolla thin, white, yellow flushed rose to orange or red to crimson, tubular-campanulate, with nectar pouches, 30–40 mm; ovary coarsely rufous-tomentose, with a few gland-tipped setae, abruptly contracted into the glabrous style. Flowering April-May.

This high altitude, relatively dwarf species is difficult in cultivation. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

Distribution  Myanmar NE China NW Yunnan

Habitat 3,600–4,500 m

RHS Hardiness Rating H5

Awards AM 1931 (Marquess of Headfort, Kells); flowers crimson.

Conservation status Vulnerable (VU)

Taxonomic note The persistent bud scales are an unusual feature in this subsection. The wide range in flower colour may have arisen through hybridization with related species in Subsect. Neriiflora. Royal Horticultural Society (1997).

A dwarf evergreen shrub, forming in the wild broad spreading mats 6 to 20 in. high, more rarely erect and up to 5 ft high; younger branches thickly set with roundish-ovate, membranous scales (perulae) up to 14 in. long, which persist for several years. Leaves oval-obovate, more tapered to the base than the apex, 34 to 112 in. long, 12 to 58 in. wide, dark green above, glaucous-white and nearly glabrous beneath; very shortly stalked. Flowers produced in clusters of three to six. Corolla between funnel- and bell-shaped, 112 to 134 in. long, scarcely as much wide, varying in colour from white to different shades of rose, orange-red, and yellow. Stamens ten, 34 in. long, glabrous. Ovary covered with branched hairs and usually with glandular bristles also. Calyx with small glands on the margins of the shallow lobes; flower stalks 12 to 58 in. long, downy. Bot. Mag., t. 9507. (s. Neriiflorum ss. Sanguineum)

R. aperantum was discovered by Kingdon Ward in 1919 on the western spur of Imaw Bum, a mountain in N.E. Burma on the divide between the eastern Irrawaddy (Nmai Hka) and the Salween, and was introduced by him in the same year. But the type of the species was collected by Farrer in the following year on the Chawchi pass, farther to the north on the same divide, a few months before his death. He wrote of it: ‘it is simply one of the most radiantly lovely things you ever saw, and when you do see it, your mouth just opens and shuts feebly. It is common, in drifts and sheets; and, for the altitude, and for its stature, rather large in all its parts. In stature it ranges from half an inch, or less, to about six inches, spreading widely, and often plastered flat against a rock, where starved. The flowers … are very large, and in a sequence of the most glorious warm pink tones – absolutely clean of mauve or blue shades – through hot flesh-pinks, rose-pinks, salmon-pinks, to flushed snow and pure white’ (Gard. Chron., Vol. 70 (1921), p. 209).

Most of the plants in cultivation are from seeds sent by Forrest between 1925 and 1931 from the same part of Burma and from bordering parts of China. Unfortunately, R. aperantum has proved a sad disappointment in cultivation, as it flowers poorly. Probably a moist position with abundant sky-light but protected from the strongest sun would suit it best. A crimson-flowered form received an Award of Merit in 1931, when shown by Lord Headfort from his garden in Ireland.