Rhododendron microphyton Franch.

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron microphyton' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-microphyton/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Genus

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.
ovary
Lowest part of the carpel containing the ovules; later developing into the fruit.
appressed
Lying flat against an object.
corolla
The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
lanceolate
Lance-shaped; broadest in middle tapering to point.
midrib
midveinCentral and principal vein in a leaf.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
style
Generally an elongated structure arising from the ovary bearing the stigma at its tip.

Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron microphyton' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-microphyton/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Upright, usually dwarf shrub, 1.3–2 m; young shoots covered with adpressed flattened brown hairs. Leaves of one kind, persistent, 1–4 × 0.5–1.5 cm, apex obtuse to acute, mucronulate, both surfaces with adpressed red-brown hairs, lower surface paler; petioles covered with brown bristles. Pedicels covered with shining chestnut-brown hairs. Flowers 3–6 per inflorescence; calyx 1–2 mm; corolla usually purple-rose, occasionally white flushed pink, with crimson flecks, funnel-campanulate, 10–15(–22) mm; stamens 5; ovary densely covered with shining chestnut-brown hairs, style glabrous. Flowering April-May. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

Distribution  Myanmar NE China Yunnan, SW Sichuan, Guizhou Thailand ?

Habitat 1,800–3,050 m

RHS Hardiness Rating H3

Conservation status Data deficient (DD)

Taxonomic note This species has no obvious allies. It is frost sensitive in Britain. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

An evergreen azalea 1 to 3 (or occasionally up to 6) ft high, of bushy, twiggy habit; young shoots densely clothed with pale, reddish-brown, appressed, flattened, forward-pointing bristles. Leaves oval, ovate, or lanceolate, 12 to 112 in. long, 13 to 34 in. wide, pointed, of a bronzy tinge when young, bright green above when older and sprinkled with bristles; the lower surface paler and with appressed bristles, especially on the midrib, margins bristly; stalk 112 to 18 in. long. Flowers four to six together in terminal clusters opening in April and May. Calyx-lobes five, varying from 116 to 16 in. long, covered with bright brown bristles like the flower-stalks, which are 16 in. long. Corolla pale rosy lilac with carmine or crimson spots on the three upper lobes, 34 to 114 in. wide and long, five-lobed, the lobes ovate, spreading, contracted at the base to a cylindrical tube, faintly downy inside. Stamens 58 to 78 in. long, downy towards the base; anthers deep rose. Ovary covered with bright brown hairs; style glabrous. (s. Azalea ss. Obtusum)

Native of Yunnan, China; discovered by the Abbé Delavay about 1884, and a little later by Henry. Forrest found it on the eastern flank of the Tali range in 1906, but did not send seeds until 1913. It belongs to the Obtusum group of azaleas, characterised by the forward-pointing appressed bristles on the vegetative parts; the long cylindrical tube of the corolla is distinctive. It is a pretty, free-flowering plant, the flowers sometimes almost white. Only hardy in the south and west.