Rhododendron polycladum Franch.

Sponsor

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 polycladum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-polycladum/). Accessed 2024-12-04.

Genus

Rhododendron
Subsect. Lapponica

Synonyms

Rhododendron scintillans Balf.f. & W.W. Sm.
Rhododendron compactum Hutch.

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

herbarium: A collection of preserved plant specimens; also the building in which such specimens are housed.
axillary: Situated in an axil.
calyx: (pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
compound: Made up or consisting of two or more similar parts (e.g. a compound leaf is a leaf with several leaflets).
inflorescence: Flower-bearing part of a plant; arrangement of flowers on the floral axis.

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 polycladum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-polycladum/). Accessed 2024-12-04.

Rhododendron polycladum on the rock garden at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (19160006*A, from Forrest 10014, gathered in Yunnan in 1913). 16 April 2024. Image Tom Christian.

Erect low shrub, to 1.2 m. Leaves (0.4–)0.8–2 × 0.2–0.6(–0.8) cm, narrowly elliptic to elliptic, acute or obtuse, obscurely mucronulate, lower surface covered with uniformly reddish brown scales that are either, not touching, or in groups touching one another. Flowers to 5 per inflorescence; calyx obsolete to 2.5 mm, lobes sometimes unequal, deltoid to rounded; corolla lavender to rich purple-blue, rarely white, broadly funnel-shaped, 8–13 mm; stamens 10, as long as the corolla; ovary scaly, style longer than the stamens, glabrous or pubescent towards the base. Flowering April-May. Royal Horticultural Society (1997).

Distribution China Yunnan

Habitat 3,000–4,300 m

RHS Hardiness Rating H5

Awards AM 1924 (Lady Aberconway and Hon. H.D. McLaren, Bodnant); flowers purplish rose. FCC 1934 (L. de Rothschild, Exbury) to a clone 'Policy'; flowers lavender blue. AGM 1993, to a clone 'Policy'.

Conservation status Vulnerable (VU)

Taxonomic note R. polycladum is probably allied to R. impeditum but differs in the shorter calyx, etc. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

This is treated under the name R. scintillans on page 765. The change of name has been made on grounds of priority and is not the result of taxonomic judgement. The types of the two species were in fact collected in the same locality. But the type-specimen of R. polycladum (Delavay 267 bis) was mounted in the Paris Herbarium on the same sheet as a specimen of R. fastigiatum and it seems to have been assumed by later botanists that the two specimens represented the same species (Rev. Lapp., p. 43).

R. compactum, described from a plant raised at Headfort from Forrest’s seeds, is a form of R. scintillans in which the inflorescences are produced from the axillary buds as well as from the terminal one, forming a large compound inflorescence. Similar plants have been raised from F.25555.

An old group of Rhododendron polycladum on the rock garden at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, flowering well several years after being cut hard back to rejuvenate the plants. 22 April 2024. Image Tom Christian.

Contact the editors at