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Peter Norris, enabling the use of The Rhododendron Handbook 1998
New article for Trees and Shrubs Online.
Recommended citation
'Rhododendron kesangiae' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Large shrub or tree, 3–12 m; bark rough. Leaves (15–)20–30 × (7–)10–16 cm, broadly elliptic to obovate, apex rounded to more or less truncate and mucronate, lower surface covered with a dense white to silvery matted floccose indumentum composed of dendroid hairs; petioles terete. Flowers 7–8-lobed, 20–25, in a dense truss, pale to deep pink, with a large purple basal blotch and nectar pouches, funnel-campanulate, 30–47 mm; stamens 14–16; ovary densely glandular, with or without a sparse eglandular tomentum. Flowering April-May. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)
Distribution Bhutan
Habitat 2,750–3,500 m
RHS Hardiness Rating H4
Conservation status Least concern (LC)
Flowers white.
A recently described species that is apparently quite common in C Bhutan.
Flowers rich purple.