Rhododendron adenopodum Franch.

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron adenopodum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-adenopodum/). Accessed 2024-03-19.

Genus

Synonyms

  • Rhododendron youngiae Fang

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.
style
Generally an elongated structure arising from the ovary bearing the stigma at its tip.
acute
Sharply pointed.
campanulate
Bell-shaped.
ciliate
Fringed with long hairs.
corolla
The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
cuneate
Wedge-shaped.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
glandular
Bearing glands.
inflorescence
Flower-bearing part of a plant; arrangement of flowers on the floral axis.
oblanceolate
Inversely lanceolate; broadest towards apex.
rachis
Central axis of an inflorescence cone or pinnate leaf.

Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron adenopodum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-adenopodum/). Accessed 2024-03-19.

Shrub, to 3 m. Leaves 9–16 × 2.5–4 cm, oblanceolate, apex acuminate to shortly cuspidate, lower surface with a one-layered dense felted grey to fawn indumentum composed of dendroid hairs, petioles c.3 cm; flowers 6–8, in a loose inflorescence, pale rose, funnel-campanulate, nectar pouches lacking, 42–50 mm; ovary with a dense covering of brownish stalked glands, style glabrous. Flowering April-May. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

Distribution  China E Sichuan, Hubei

Habitat 1,500–2,200 m

Awards AM 1926 (G.W.E. Loder, Wakehurst Place, Sussex); flowers rose-pink, paler inside, with a few crimson spots.

Conservation status Vulnerable (VU)

Taxonomic note (incl. R. youngiae Fang) The relatively long and narrow leaves with long petioles will usually distinguish this from the remaining species in the subsection. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

An evergreen shrub 4 to 10 ft high; young shoots thinly felted and glandular. Leaves leathery, 3 to 8 in. long, 1 to 2 in. wide, oblong-oblanceolate with an acute point, tapered to a cuneate base, glabrous above, but covered beneath with a close, greyish felt; stalk 12 to 1 in. long, felted. Flowers pale rose, usually speckled within, 212 to 3 in. across, produced in April in rather loose terminal racemose clusters, the rachis up to 2 in. long. Calyx-lobes oblong, ciliate, 18 to 14 in. long. Corolla broadly funnel-campanulate, with five rounded lobes. Stamens ten, as long as the corolla, hairy at the base. Ovary densely clad with long-stalked glands. Style glabrous.

Native of Central China; discovered by the French missionary Farges in N.E. Szechwan; introduced by Wilson in 1900 from W. Hupeh when collecting for Messrs Veitch. A year later Farges sent seeds to M. Vilmorin, and it first flowered in a greenhouse at Les Barres in 1909. According to Wilson it is rare in western Hupeh, known to him from only two or three localities in the Hsing-shan district, where it grows in thin woods at 5,000 to 7,000 ft. Because of its racemose inflorescence, it is placed in the Caucasicum subseries of the Ponticum series, and certainly it appears to be more closely allied to R. smirnowii of N.E. Asiatic Turkey than to any Chinese rhododendron. It is rather a dull rhododendron, but it was admired by Gerald Loder and received an Award of Merit on April 7, 1926, when shown by him from his garden at Wakehurst Place, Sussex.