Rhododendron grande Wight

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Credits

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

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

Genus

Synonyms

  • Rhododendron argenteum Hook, f.
  • Rhododendron longifolium Nutt.

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.
authority
The author(s) of a plant name. The names of these authors are stated directly after the plant name often abbreviated. For example Quercus L. (L. = Carl Linnaeus); Rhus wallichii Hook. f. (Hook. f. = Joseph Hooker filius i.e. son of William Hooker). Standard reference for the abbreviations: Brummitt & Powell (1992).
calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
glandular
Bearing glands.
indumentum
A covering of hairs or scales.
oblanceolate
Inversely lanceolate; broadest towards apex.
ovary
Lowest part of the carpel containing the ovules; later developing into the fruit.
stigma
(in a flower) The part of the carpel that receives pollen and on which it germinates. May be at the tip of a short or long style or may be reduced to a stigmatic surface at the apex of the ovary.
style
Generally an elongated structure arising from the ovary bearing the stigma at its tip.
synonym
(syn.) (botanical) An alternative or former name for a taxon usually considered to be invalid (often given in brackets). Synonyms arise when a taxon has been described more than once (the prior name usually being the one accepted as correct) or if an article of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature has been contravened requiring the publishing of a new name. Developments in taxonomic thought may be reflected in an increasing list of synonyms as generic or specific concepts change over time.

Credits

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

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

Tree, 5–12 m. Leaves 15–27 × 5–9.5 cm, elliptic to oblanceolate, lower surface with a thin silvery compacted indumentum. Flowers 15–25, in a dense truss, 8-lobed, cream to pale yellow, rarely with a purplish tinge, with purple nectar pouches, ventricose-campanulate, 50–70 mm; stamens 16; ovary covered with stalked glands, sometimes also with a dense pale brown tomentum. Flowering February-April. Royal Horticultural Society (1997).

Distribution  BhutanChina S Tibet India NE Nepal E

Habitat 2,500–3,000 m

RHS Hardiness Rating H4

Awards FCC 1901 (F.D. Godman, South Lodge, Horsham); flowers creamy white, with a purple blotch.

Conservation status Least concern (LC)

Taxonomic note The glandular ovary will distinguish this from the remaining species in Subsect. Grandia. Royal Horticultural Society (1997).

An evergreen tree or large shrub up to 30 ft high; young shoots stout, clothed with silvery scurf. Leaves stiff and leathery, oblong to oblanceolate, tapered at both ends, 6 to 15 in. long, 3 to 6 in. wide, dark green and glabrous above, beautifully silvery or covered with dull tawny down beneath; stalk 1 to 2 in. long. Flowers sometimes twenty-five to thirty, opening during March and April in a rounded truss 5 to 7 in. wide. Calyx a mere rim; flower-stalk glandular, and it may be slightly downy, like the calyx. Corolla bell-shaped, 2 to 3 in. long and wide, ivory white, with conspicuous blotches at the base, eight-lobed. Stamens sixteen, downy at the base. Ovary downy and densely glandular; style glabrous or nearly so; stigma large, disk-like. Bot. Mag., t. 5054. (s. Grande)

Native of the Himalaya from Nepal eastward; described in 1847 from a specimen collected in Bhutan. In 1850 it was introduced from the Sikkim Himalaya by J. D. Hooker, who found it on Tonglo (west of Darjeeling) and Sinchul (S.E. of Darjeeling), both of which at that time lay within the domains of the Rajah of Sikkim. Hooker redescribed it under the name R. argenteum, which remained in use until well into this century and has not even now disappeared from garden nomenclature, though there is really no doubt that the Sikkim and Bhutan plants represent the same species. In this connection H. F. Tagg, the Edinburgh authority, wrote: ‘In its typical condition [R. grande] is characterised by the oblong-oblanceolate leaves with their silvery undersurface. Forms occur in cultivation with a rougher and somewhat tawny indumentum. It was at one time thought that these might represent R. grande as opposed to R. argenteum with its more silvery under surface. There seems little doubt that R. argenteum is a synonym of R. grande’ (The Species of Rhododendron, 2nd ed., p. 310). The synonymous name R. longifolium is founded on a narrow-leaved specimen collected by Booth in the Assam Himalaya.

One of the most magnificent of rhododendrons, this unfortunately can only be grown in the open air in the mildest counties. The finest examples are to be seen in Cornwall and western Scotland, where it has attained a height of over 30 ft.


R sidereum Balf. f

This is closely related to R. grande, but the leaves are as a rule narrower, only 1{1/4} to 2{3/4} in. wide, and up to 10 or 12 in. long, Corolla eight-lobed, bell-shaped, creamy white to yellow, with a crimson blotch at the base, nearly 2 in. wide. It was discovered in N.E. upper Burma in 1912 by Capt. Abbay, during the expedition that brought the frontier area around Hpimaw under British administration. Seven years later it was collected almost simultaneously in the Hpimaw area by Farrer and Cox, by Kingdon Ward, and by Forrest’s native collectors, who, as Mr Cox records, came over the Hpimaw pass from China, much to Farrer’s indignation (Farrers Last Journey, p. 45). It was introduced the same year (Farrer 872 and Forrest 18054). According to Farrer it is a prevailing rhododendron in the upper forest zone around Hpimaw at 9,000 to 10,500 ft. Kingdon Ward sent seeds from the Seinghku valley, N.W. upper Burma, in 1926 (KW 6792), and from the Assam Himalaya in 1938 (KW 13649). Bot. Mag., n.s., t. 638.R. sidereum is rather uncommon in cultivation and no more hardy than R. grande. It received an Award of Merit when shown from Brodick in the Isle of Arran on May 5, 1964 (clone ‘Glen Rosa’, with primrose-yellow flowers).