Rhododendron boothii Nutt.

TSO logo

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

Genus

Synonyms

  • Rhododendron mishmiense Hutch. & Kingdon-Ward

Infraspecifics

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.
included
(botanical) Contained within another part or organ.
ovary
Lowest part of the carpel containing the ovules; later developing into the fruit.
corolla
The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
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 boothii' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-boothii/). Accessed 2024-03-19.

Usually an epiphytic shrub, to 2 m; young growth with a dense indumentum of stiff twisted and matted hairs. Leaves 7.5–11.5 × 3.8–5.5 cm, narrowly ovate to ovate-oblong, apex acuminate, upper surface with dense matted stiff hairs overlying the midrib, lower surface with dark brown close, more or less equal scales that are set in pits and have upturned rims. Pedicels stout, to 15 mm, indumentum as for young growth. Flowers (3–)4–6(–10) per inflorescence; calyx lobes (7–)10–15 mm; corolla dull to bright yellow, sometimes spotted, campanulate, tube c.15 mm, lobes 10–12mm; stamens 10; ovary scaly, tapering into the declinate style. Flowering April-May. This tender species is rare in cultivation Royal Horticultural Society (1997).

Distribution  China S Tibet India Arunachal Pradesh

Habitat 1,800–2,450 m

RHS Hardiness Rating H2

Conservation status Near threatened (NT)

An evergreen shrub 6 to 8 ft, sometimes 10 ft high, of loose habit; young shoots at first very hairy. Leaves leathery, oval-ovate, slenderly pointed; 312 to 5 in. long, 114 to 212 in. wide, dark green and ultimately glabrous above, but sprinkled with long hairs when young and hairy on the margins; scaly beneath; stalk about 14 in. long and clothed with shaggy hairs like the young shoot. Flowers rich yellow, seven to ten of them closely packed in a terminal cluster, opening in April and May. Calyx membranous, deeply five-lobed, the lobes broadly ovate, rounded, 14 in. long, sparsely hairy on the margins. Corolla 1 to 112 in. wide, bell-shaped at the base, separating into five broad, rounded lobes; scaly outside. Stamens ten, their stout stalks very hairy at the lower half; anthers standing just clear of the corolla-tube. Ovary 14 in. long, conical, closely covered with scales, surmounted by a glabrous, thick, much decurved style. Bot. Mag., t. 7149. (s. and ss. Boothii)

A little-known species, discovered by Thomas Booth on December 16, 1849, in an outer range of the Assam Himalaya, north-west of Tezpur, growing epiphytically on oaks at about 5,000 ft, and introduced by him. R. camelliiflorum and R. edgeworthii also grew as epiphytes in the same locality. He wrote in his journal: ‘found many on old decayed and blown down trees on the ground, destitute of seeds or flower buds. With great difficulty and delay I obtained seed of these species by climbing such trees as were practicable, and cutting off the boughs on which they were located’ (Gard. Chron., 1862, p. 406). It was found again in the same area but farther north by Kingdon Ward in 1935 (fruit) and 1938 (flower), between Tembang and Lagam (Assam Adventure, p. 266; Gard. Chron., Vol. 102 (1937), p. 143).

R. boothii is not hardy near London, but has been successfully grown in the open air in the south-west. It is however very rare in cultivation. Its flowers and trusses are small, but attractive in the uncommon colour.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

[R. mishmiense]. – Included in R. boothii.


R mishmiense Hutch. & Ward

It is doubtful whether this rhododendron is really specifically distinct from R. boothii, though it differs in having the pedicels villous, instead of bristly as in that species. It was introduced by Kingdon Ward from the Mishmi Hills, Assam, in 1928. An Award of Merit was given in 1940 to a plant under this name but Kingdon Ward, who saw it, appears to have doubted whether it was his R. mishmiense. He described it (the plant exhibited) as having flowers ‘of a muddy or pasty margarine-yellow, with a dull crimson rash of measles’ (Gard. Chron., Vol. 107 (1940), p. 323). The plants he saw in the wild had lemon-yellow flowers.