Rhododendron tanastylum Balf. f. & Ward

An evergreen shrub varying from 8 to 20 ft high in the wild; young shoots soon becoming glabrous. Leaves elliptic-lanceolate or oblanceolate, tapered about equally towards both ends but terminated by a short slender point, 3 to 51⁄2 in. long, 1 to 13⁄4 in, wide, glabrous and green on both surfaces; stalk 1⁄2 to 5⁄8 in. long. Flowers borne during May in a racemose cluster of about eight; pedicels about 3⁄8 in. long. Calyx a mere wavy rim. Corolla tubular-campanulate, 2 in. long, 11⁄2 in. wide, deep crimson with darker spots, five-lobed, the lobes notched. Stamens ten, glabrous or slightly downy at the base; ovary and style glabrous, the latter much longer than the stamens and standing out well beyond the corolla. (s. and ss. Irroratum)

Native of the Yunnan-Burma borderland westward through upper Burma to the Mishmi Hills, Assam, and the region of the Tsangpo gorge; also of Thailand; discovered by Kingdon Ward above Hpimaw, upper Burma, and introduced by Farrer and Cox five years later from the same locality, where it grows at about 8,000 ft. In the typical form the flowers are crimson or crimson-scarlet, but other colours have been recorded by Kingdon Ward and Forrest in their field notes, e.g., ‘black crimson’, ‘light or dark amethyst purple’, or ‘morose purple’. It is found at altitudes between 6,000 and 11,ooo ft and is tender in some forms. It is not of much ornamental value, even the crimson forms having a hint of magenta in their colouring.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

R. kendrickii – This species is now better known, thanks to recent gatherings in Bhutan. R. ramsdenianum, mentioned under it on page 782, is accepted by Dr Chamberlain as a distinct species, closely allied to R. kendrickii. It differs from it, however, only in its relatively broader leaves, and may be conspecific.