Rhododendron floccigerum Franch.

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Credits

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

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

Genus

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.
ovary
Lowest part of the carpel containing the ovules; later developing into the fruit.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
included
(botanical) Contained within another part or organ.
indeterminate
A form of inflorescence in which the outer or lower flowers open first and the inflorescence axis continues to grow. (Cf. determinate.)
indumentum
A covering of hairs or scales.
lanceolate
Lance-shaped; broadest in middle tapering to point.
ovary
Lowest part of the carpel containing the ovules; later developing into the fruit.
section
(sect.) Subdivision of a genus.
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 floccigerum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-floccigerum/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Shrub, 0.6–3 m. Leaves 3.5–11 × 1–2.7 cm, narrowly oblong to narrowly elliptic, lower surface with a glaucous papillate epidermis, and with varying amounts of a rufous floccose, usually patchy, tomentum composed of ramiform hairs; petioles floccose-tomentose, rarely also setulose-glandular. Flowers 4–7 per truss; calyx 14 mm; corolla fleshy, crimson to scarlet, rarely yellowish to pink, tubular-campanulate, with nectar pouches, 30–40 mm; ovary densely stellate-tomentose, lacking glands, tapering into the glabrous style. Flowering March-May. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

Distribution  China SE Tibet, NW Yunnan

Habitat 2,750–3,950 m

RHS Hardiness Rating H5

Awards AM 1957 (Col Lord Digby, Minterne, Dorset); flowers pale cream, edged very pale Cherry, with pale greenish spots

Conservation status Least concern (LC)

Taxonomic note Allied to R. neriiflorum, R. sperabile and R. sperabiloides but distinguished from all three by the characteristic patchy leaf indumentum. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

An evergreen shrub 3 to 6 ft high; young shoots clothed at first with brownish-red wool. Leaves narrowly oblong-lanceolate, sharply pointed, tapered at the base, 2 to 412 in. long, 13 to 1 in. wide; dull green and glabrous above, covered with loose brownish-red wool beneath; stalk 14 to 12 in. long. Flowers opening during March and April in trusses of four to eight; stalks 38 to 12 in. long, loosely downy. Calyx shallowly five-lobed. Corolla bell-shaped, 114 in. long and wide, five-lobed; in colour it is very variable, ranging from blood-red to yellow tinged with rose. Stamens ten, about 1 in. long quite glabrous; anthers black-purple. Ovary clothed with whitish felt; style about as long as the stamens, downy only near the ovary (if at all). Bot. Mag., t. 9290. (s. and ss. Neriiflorum)

R. floccigerum was discovered by the French missionary Soulié on the Mekong-Salween divide near Tseku. Forrest, who sent home seeds for the first time in 1914, found it in various parts of N.W. Yunnan, from the Chungtien plateau to the Salween-Irrawaddy divide and south to the mountains between the Chienchuan river and the Mekong. It is a hardy but early-flowering species of comparatively dwarf habit, with flowers which, in the best forms, are quite as fine a red as in R. neriiflorum. But the colour in this species varies a good deal and a plant at Kew bears flowers of rich salmon red. Some of an indeterminate mixture of rose and yellow shades are very poor and dull. One of the best is depicted in the Botanical Magazine (loc. cit. supra). The species is hardy enough for Kew. The narrow leaves, covered thickly beneath with loose rufous floss, constitute one of its most distinctive characters in the section to which it has been assigned.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

[var. appropinquans] – Now included in R. neriiflorum subsp. phaedropium.


var. appropinquans Tagg & Forr

Differing in the more or less glandular branchlets and petioles and in having the mature leaves glabrous beneath except for traces of flock on the midrib. Introduced by Forrest. Award of Merit March 19, 1957, when shown by Lord Digby, Minterne, Dorset (a form with flowers of a pale cream colour, edged with pale cherry-pink).