Rhododendron fulgens Hook. f.

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Peter Norris, enabling the use of The Rhododendron Handbook 1998

Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron fulgens' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-fulgens/). Accessed 2024-09-15.

Genus

Rhododendron
Subsect. Fulgensia

Infraspecifics

R succothii

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.
corolla: The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
glabrous: Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
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.

References

Royal Horticultural Society (1997). The Rhododendron Handbook 1998

Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron fulgens' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-fulgens/). Accessed 2024-09-15.

Rhododendron fulgens foliage. A plant raised from L&S 2846 growing in the Valley Gardens, Windsor Great Park, UK. 10 May 2017. Image John Anderson.

Shrub, 1.5–4.5 m. Leaves (7–)9-ll × (4–)5–7 cm, broadly ovate to obovate, apex and base rounded, lower surface with dense fulvous lanate indumentum composed of fasciculate hairs. Flowers 8–14, in a dense truss; calyx 1–2 mm; corolla scarlet to blood-red, with darker nectar pouches, tubular-campanulate, 20–35 mm; ovary glabrous. Flowering March-April. Royal Horticultural Society (1997).

Distribution Bhutan China S Tibet India Sikkim, Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh Nepal E

Habitat 3,200–4,300 m

RHS Hardiness Rating H6

Awards AM 1933 (G.W.E. Loder, Wakehurst Place, Sussex); flowers blood red.

Conservation status Least concern (LC)

Taxonomic note A distinctive species unlikely to be confused with any other. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

An evergreen shrub 6 to almost 20 ft high, with stiff branches and peeling bark. Leaves oval, 3 to 4 in. long, 11⁄2 to 2 in. wide; rounded at the end except for a short, abrupt tip, somewhat heart-shaped at the base; covered beneath with a thick reddish-brown felt. Flowers blood-red, 1 to 11⁄4 in. across, densely packed in hemispherical trusses 31⁄2 in. wide. Calyx very small, shallowly lobed. Corolla bell-shaped, with five shallow, notched lobes; stamens ten, much shorter than the corolla, not downy; ovary glabrous, style crimson. Bot. Mag., t. 5317. (s. Campanulatum)

Native of the Himalaya from Nepal eastward; introduced by J. D. Hooker in 1850. This species is very similar to R. campanulatum in foliage, but is not quite so hardy nor so free in growth. Its flowers are rich red and appear during March and April. A suitable spot for it is some sheltered outskirt of woodland, especially where the flowers may be protected from early morning sunlight. At Kew the various titmice are very fond of pecking a hole through the base of the corolla, presumably to get at the honey. An ornamental feature of the plant is the crimson bracts that accompany the young growth in spring.

Award of Merit March 21, 1933, when exhibited by Gerald Loder, Wakehurst Place, Sussex.

Rhododendron fulgens. Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire, UK. 28 March 2012. Image John Anderson.

R succothii Davidian

A species apparently allied to R. fulgens, differing in having the leaves glabrous beneath, very shortly stalked (up to barely {1/4} in. long), clustered in whorls on the branchlets. It resembles R. fulgens in its flowers and peeling bark. Discovered in 1915 by Roland Cooper in Bhutan, where seeds were collected by Ludlow and Sherriff in 1937 and again in 1949. It was also found by Kingdon Ward in 1938 on the Poshing La, Assam Himalaya. The species is named after Sir George Campbell of Succoth, Bt, and was described in 1965 (R.C.Y.B. 1966, p. 103).

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