Rhododendron habrotrichum Balf. f. & W. W. Sm.

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron habrotrichum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-habrotrichum/). 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.
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.
glandular
Bearing glands.
midrib
midveinCentral and principal vein in a leaf.
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 habrotrichum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-habrotrichum/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Shrub, 1–4 m; young shoots densely glandular-setose. Leaves subcoriaceous, 7–16 × 3–7.5 cm, ovate to obovate, apex acute, lower surface with midrib and main veins glandular-setose. Flowers c.10 in a truss; calyx red, 10–15 mm; corolla white flushed rose to pink, with or without purple flecks and a basal blotch, campanulate, nectar pouches absent, 40–50 mm; ovary densely glandular-setose. Flowering April-May. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

Distribution  Myanmar NE China W Yunnan

Habitat 2,700–3,350 m

RHS Hardiness Rating H5

Awards AM 1933 (R. White, Sunningdale); flowers pink.

Conservation status Vulnerable (VU)

Taxonomic note Allied to R. glischrum but with broader leaves. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

A bushy evergreen shrub up to 10 ft high, or a small tree up to 25 ft high; young shoots purplish, clothed with bristles up to 14 in. long and gland-tipped. Leaves ovate-oblong, rounded or heart-shaped at the base, slenderly pointed, 3 to 612 in. long, 112 to 3 in. wide, dark green above, paler green and bristly on the midrib but not on the veins beneath, margins bristly; stalk up to 1 in. long, very glandular-bristly. Flowers produced in April in compact trusses about 4 in. across. Calyx five-lobed, the lobes 38 to 12 in. long, glandular-bristly like the flower-stalk, which is 12 to 1 in. long. Corolla bell-shaped, 112 to 2 in. wide, white or pale rose with usually a blotch of purple at the base, five-lobed, the lobes rounded and notched in the middle. Stamens ten, varying from half to nearly as long as the corolla, downy towards the base. Ovary and base of style glandular-bristly. (s. Barbatum ss. Glischrum)

R. habrotrichum was discovered by Forrest in 1912 on the Shweli-Salween divide, near the border between Yunnan and Burma, and appears to be mainly confined to that area (Kingdon Ward’s 3042, collected in Burma about 50 miles farther north, is probably R. habrotrichum, however). It flowered at Kew in April 1920. Whether this species and R. glischrum are really specifically distinct is very much to be doubted. But the latter, at least in its typical form, is distinguished from R. habrotrichum by its longer, relatively narrower and more tapered leaves, with shorter bristles more or less all over the undersurface.

Its garden value is the same as that of R. glischrum and R. glischroides. A pink-flowered form received an Award of Merit on May 2, 1933, when shown by the Sunningdale Nurseries.