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Rhododendron pachytrichum Franch.

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Kindly sponsored by
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 pachytrichum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-pachytrichum/). Accessed 2024-11-11.

Genus

Synonyms

  • Rhododendron monosematum Hutch.

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.
apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
clone
Organism arising via vegetative or asexual reproduction.
corolla
The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
midrib
midveinCentral and principal vein in a leaf.
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 pachytrichum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-pachytrichum/). Accessed 2024-11-11.

Shrub or small tree, 1–6 m; young shoots and petioles tomentose or stalked-glandular. Leaves 9–15 × 2–4.2 cm, elliptic to obovate, apex more or less cuspidate, lower surface with lamina glabrous though with short folioliferous hairs on or near the midrib. Flowers 7–10, in a lax truss; calyx c. 1.5 mm; corolla white suffused pink to pink, with a purple blotch and flecks, narrowly campanulate, lacking nectar pouches, 35–50 mm; ovary densely tomentose or stalked-glandular, style glabrous or glandular at base. Flowering March-April. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

Distribution  China NE Yunnan, SW Sichuan

Habitat 2,500–3,600 m

RHS Hardiness Rating H6

Conservation status Least concern (LC)

An evergreen shrub or small tree up to 20 ft high; young shoots conspicuously furnished with a dense coat of brown curly bristles 18 in. long. Leaves 3 to 6 in. long, 1 to 2 in. wide, narrowly oblong or inclined to obovate, abruptly narrowed at the apex to a short fine point, rounded at the base, dark green and soon glabrous above, bristly on the margins at first, and on the midrib beneath; stalk 13 to 1 in. long, with the same mossy character as the young shoot. Flowers opening in April, borne in compact trusses of up to ten on shaggy stalks about 58 in. long. Calyx minute, glabrous or sparsely hairy. Corolla white or pale rose, with a dark blotch at the base, 112 in. wide, scarcely so deep, bell-shaped, five-lobed. Stamens ten, shorter than the corolla, downy at the base. Ovary densely hairy; style glabrous. (s. Barbatum ss. Maculiferum)

Native of W. Szechwan, where according to Wilson it is one of the commonest and most widely dispersed species and occurs up to an altitude of 11,ooo ft. It was discovered by the Abbé Soulié and introduced by Wilson in 1903 for Messrs Veitch. It is a perfectly hardy species, but rather too early-flowering for most gardens and anyway only worth planting in selected colour-forms as the flowers often have a magenta tint. The Award of Merit was given in 1963 to the clone ‘Sesame’, with rosy-pink flowers, when exhibited by Lord Aberconway and the National Trust, Bodnant, on April 18.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

Dr Chamberlain remarks that the characters used by Dr Hutchinson to distinguish R. monosematum from R. pachytrichum are those which are accepted as part of the normal variation of the related R. strigillosum; and that, furthermore, some plants raised from the batch of seeds that produced R. monosematum are R. pachytrichum sens. strict.

R. pachytrichum was reintroduced by Keith Rushforth from Mount Omei (Emei Shan) in 1980 (KR 198).


var. monosematum (Hutch.) D.F.Chamb.

Synonyms
R. monosematum Hutch.

Petioles, pedicels, calyx and ovary stalked-glandular. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

Distribution

  • China – Emei Shan

Var. monosematum is only known for certain from Emei Shan in W Sichuan, and has apparently arisen as a stabilized back-cross from the hybrid swarms of var. pachytrichum and R. strigillosum that occur close by. It was originally described from cultivated material that resembled var. pachytrichum. It is therefore more appropriate to treat it as a variety of R. pachytrichum rather than of R. strigillosum as do some Chinese authors. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)


var. pachytrichum

Petioles, pedicels, calyx and ovary tomentose, eglandular.

Awards AM 1963 (Lord Aberconway and National Trust, Bodnant) to a clone ‘Sesame’; flowers white, tinged purple.