Rhododendron araiophyllum Balf. f. & W.W. Sm.

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron araiophyllum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-araiophyllum/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

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.
clone
Organism arising via vegetative or asexual reproduction.
corolla
The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
lanceolate
Lance-shaped; broadest in middle tapering to point.
midrib
midveinCentral and principal vein in a leaf.
ovary
Lowest part of the carpel containing the ovules; later developing into the fruit.
style
Generally an elongated structure arising from the ovary bearing the stigma at its tip.

Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron araiophyllum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-araiophyllum/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Shrub or small tree, 1.5–6.5 m. Leaves sub-coriaceous, 5.5–13 × 1.8–3.2 cm, elliptic to oblanceolate, apex acute to cuspidate, lower surface glabrous, punctate hair bases apparently lacking. Flowers 5–10, in a lax truss, white flushed rose, with a basal blotch, sometimes also with purple flecks, open-campanulate, lacking nectar pouches, 28–35 mm; ovary with a sparse covering of short white hairs, style glabrous. Flowering April-May. Royal Horticultural Society (1997).

Distribution  Myanmar NE China W Yunnan

Habitat 2,300–3,350 m

RHS Hardiness Rating H3

Awards AM 1971 (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) to a clone 'George Taylor'; flowers white, with blotch and spots of red-purple.

Conservation status Least concern (LC)

Taxonomic note Closely allied to R. annae but distinguished by its glabrous style. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

An evergreen shrub up to 16 ft high; young shoots glabrous or soon becoming so. Leaves red when young, lanceolate, slenderly pointed, broadly tapered at the base, 3 to 5 in. long, 58 to 114 in. wide, glabrous and green on both surfaces except for traces of wool on the midrib beneath; stalk 14 to 12 in. long. Flowers in a racemose cluster of about eight. Calyx little more than a wavy rim, glabrous; flower-stalk glabrous, slender, up to 1 in. long. Corolla open bell-shaped, 112 in. long, rather more wide, white often flushed with rose-lavender, with a crimson blotch at the base and similarly coloured spots on the upper lobes, the five lobes are notched in the middle and their margins are uneven. Stamens ten, downy at the base; ovary minutely downy, style glabrous, red, only as long as the corolla. (s. and ss. Irroratum)

R. araiophyllum was found by Forrest in 1913 on the Shweli-Salween divide at 9,000 to 10,000 ft and introduced from that region of Yunnan; Farrer later sent seeds from farther north on the Burma side of the frontier. It is one of the most attractive members of the Irroratum series and has brightly coloured young growths, though these, like the flowers, may be cut by frost. The flowering time is April or early May. Award of Merit May 4, 1971, when shown by Kew from Wakehurst Place (clone ‘George Taylor’).