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Peter Norris, enabling the use of The Rhododendron Handbook 1998
New article for Trees and Shrubs Online.
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'Rhododendron eriocarpum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Dwarf shrub, to 0.4 m or more; young shoots and petioles densely covered with broad flattened brown adpressed hairs. Leaves of one kind, persistent, 1.7–2.5 × 1–1.5 cm, obovate to elliptic, apex bluntly mucronate, both surfaces stiffly hairy, especially on the midrib. Pedicels densely and stiffly adpressed-hairy. Flowers 1–2 per inflorescence; calyx 2–3 mm; corolla white to purplish-pink, with darker flecks, broadly funnel-campanulate, c.30 mm; stamens 9–10; ovary stiffly hairy, style glabrous. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)
Distribution Japan Kyushu, Ryukyu Islands
Habitat c.300 m
RHS Hardiness Rating H3
Conservation status Least concern (LC)
Taxonomic note (incl. R. tamurae [makino] masamune)
This is a tender species that is affected by frosts. It rarely flowers in Britain when grown outside. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)