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'Rhododendron konori' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Shrub up to 4 m, epiphytic or terrestrial; young stems at first densely brown-scaly with easily detached scales. Leaves 8–14 × 5–7.5, broadly elliptic or occasionally obovate, the apex obtusely pointed to rounded, the margin flat and entire, the base broadly tapering; upper surface at first densely brown-scaly, the scales becoming silvery as the leaf expands and quickly becoming glabrescent, with the midrib raised above near the base, becoming slightly impressed in the distal part, lateral veins 7–10 pairs, smooth, rather fine; lower surface with the midrib strongly raised throughout its length, the laterals smooth, densely brown-scaly with dendroid, unevenly sized scales, each from a small epidermal tubercle. Flowers 3–12 per umbel, more or less horizontally disposed; calyx stellate-scaly, a lobed oblique disc; corolla white to pink, often marked with darker pink spots at the base of the lobes, powerfully and sweetly scented, funnel-shaped, 8–19 × 9–15 cm, sparsely scaly or glabrous outside, mostly with 7 lobes; stamens 14, more or less clustered on the lower side of the mouth, ovary silvery scaly and densely hairy, style hairy and scaly in the lower half, becoming less hairy in the upper half and finally glabrous near the top. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)
Distribution Indonesia Widespread in New Guinea from west to east Papua New Guinea
Habitat 750–2,500 m
RHS Hardiness Rating H2
Awards AM 1969 (M. Black, Grasmere, Westmorland) to a clone 'Eleanor Black'; flowers white flushed red
Conservation status Least concern (LC)
A very attractive species in cultivation with handsome foliage and its beautiful and powerfully scented flowers. R. phaeopeplum Sleumer now reduced to a variety of R. konori is generally smaller in all its parts and more suited to pot culture. The spelling ‘konorii’ is sometimes used but because Beccari named this plant after a Papuan deity not a person there is no requirement under the existing Code of Botanical Nomenclature to adopt this. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)