Rhododendron championiae Hook.

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 championiae' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-championiae/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Genus

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.
lanceolate
Lance-shaped; broadest in middle tapering to point.
linear
Strap-shaped.
midrib
midveinCentral and principal vein in a leaf.
variety
(var.) Taxonomic rank (varietas) grouping variants of a species with relatively minor differentiation in a few characters but occurring as recognisable populations. Often loosely used for rare minor variants more usefully ranked as forms.

Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron championiae' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-championiae/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Shrub or small tree, to 8 m. Leaves elliptic to obovate, 7–15 × 2.5–5 cm, bristly, especially on veins below, apex acuminate. Flowers 4–6, clustered at end of a leafy shoot below the vegetative bud, pink at first, becoming white, with yellow markings, funnel-shaped, tube 12–15mm, lobes 40–45 mm; stamens 10. Flowering April-May. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

Distribution  China S

Habitat 500–1,300 m

RHS Hardiness Rating H3

Conservation status Least concern (LC)

Taxonomic note Only the type variety of this species is in cultivation. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

An evergreen shrub probably some 6 or 8 ft high; young shoots clothed with stiff outstanding hairs, some of which are gland-tipped. Leaves elliptic-lanceolate, pointed, mostly wedge-shaped at the base, 3 to 5 in. long, 1 to 134 in. wide; dark green, sprinkled on both surfaces with pale bristles that are especially abundant on the midrib beneath and on the margins; stalk 12 to 34 in. long, very bristly. Flowers as many as six in a terminal cluster, usually fewer, opening in May. Corolla pink, 312 in. wide, the base narrowly tubular and 34 in. long, separating into five oblong, bluntish lobes 112 to 2 in. long. Stamens ten, 2 in. long, downy at the lower half. Calyx-lobes five, linear, very unequal, 18 to 12 in. long, very bristly on the margins; flower-stalk very bristly, 34 to 1 in. long. Bot. Mag., t. 4609. (s. Stamineum)

Native of Hong Kong on Mt Victoria, where it is rare; found also in the province of Fukien, China, by Dunn in 1905. It was discovered in 1849 by Lt-Col. Champion, after whose wife it was named by the elder Hooker. Although no longer there it was introduced to Kew in 1881 and flowered in the Temperate House in 1894, but was a shy bloomer. It is a quite tender shrub and I have only seen it in the open air at Caerhays.