Rhododendron brevistylum Franch.

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Credits

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

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

Synonyms

  • Rhododendron porrosquameum Balf. f. & Forr.

Infraspecifics

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.
Tibet
Traditional English name for the formerly independent state known to its people as Bod now the Tibet (Xizang) Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. The name Xizang is used in lists of Chinese provinces.
bloom
Bluish or greyish waxy substance on leaves or fruits.
ciliate
Fringed with long hairs.
lanceolate
Lance-shaped; broadest in middle tapering to point.
ovary
Lowest part of the carpel containing the ovules; later developing into the fruit.
pubescent
Covered in hairs.
style
Generally an elongated structure arising from the ovary bearing the stigma at its tip.

References

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Credits

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

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

An evergreen shrub up to 10 ft high; young shoots densely scaly. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, slenderly pointed, more or less tapered at the base; 2 to 4 in. long, 1 to 134 in. wide; dark green above, tawny green beneath, rather thinly scaly on both sides; stalk 14 to 12 in. long. Flowers in clusters of four to eight, opening in June and July. Corolla widely funnel-shaped, 112 in. wide and nearly as long, conspicuously scaly outside, downy at the base inside, pale to deep rose with crimson markings on the upper lobes. Stamens ten, very downy on the lower half; ovary thickly scaly; style pubescent towards the base. Calyx small, wavy-lobed, scaly, sometimes slightly ciliate; flower-stalk up to 1 in. long, scaly. (s. Heliolepis)

Native mainly of N.W. Yunnan but also found farther west, on the Irrawaddy-Lohit divide; discovered by Père Soulié on the Se La, Mekong-Salween divide in 1875 and introduced by Forrest in 1912. It was reintroduced by Kingdon Ward in 1926 from the valley of the Di Chu, a tributary of the Lohit rising at the Diphuk La, at the meeting point of Assam, Burma, and Tibet. He saw it in flower on July 13 and remarked in his field note: ‘Now almost in full bloom, still a fine sight a fortnight later. Very free-flowering, a beautiful late species’ (KW 7108).

R. brevistylum is allied to R. heliolepis, also a late-flowering species, but differs in the short style and in having the leaves tapered and not rounded at the base.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

For this and R. pholidotum, see R. heliolepis in this supplement.


R pholidotum Balf. f. & W. W. Sm

This is very closely allied to R. brevistylum and is placed under it in synonymy in the article accompanying Bot. Mag., t. 8898. It was introduced by Forrest in 1910 and the plate in the Botanical Magazine is from a plant at Edinburgh raised from the original seeds (F.6762).