Rhododendron pendulum Hook. f.

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Credits

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

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

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.
campanulate
Bell-shaped.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
obtuse
Blunt.
petiole
Leaf stalk.
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 pendulum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-pendulum/). Accessed 2024-03-19.

Straggling epiphytic shrub, 0.3–1.3 m. Leaves 3.5–5 × 1.5–2.5 cm, oblong-elliptic, apex obtuse, upper surface smooth; lower surface with a glaucous papillate epidermis, scales small, distant, golden, also with a dense woolly cinnamon tomentum. Pedicels densely tomentose. Flowers 2–3 per inflorescence; calyx lobes c.6 mm; corolla white, sometimes flushed pink, or cream, open-funnel-campanulate, 15–22 mm; stamens 10, regular; ovary scaly and densely tomentose, style sharply deflexed, usually with a few scales at base. Flowering April-May. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

Distribution  BhutanChina S Tibet India Sikkim Nepal

Habitat 2,270–3,630 m

RHS Hardiness Rating H5

Conservation status Least concern (LC)

Taxonomic note This species is allied to R. seinghkuense (q.v.). Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

A small evergreen shrub up to 4 ft high, sometimes epiphytic in the wild; branchlets densely coated with a brown or fawn wool. Leaves mostly oblong to elliptic, obtuse or rounded at both ends, up to 2 in. long, and 1 in. wide, almost glabrous above when mature, coated beneath with brown or fawn wool and with scattered brown scales; petiole up to 12 in. long, woolly. Flowers in twos or threes, sometimes solitary, borne in April or May. Calyx five-lobed, up to 38 in. long, hairy. Corolla rotate-campanulate, about 112 in. wide, white with a yellow throat and sometimes slightly tinged with pink, more or less scaly on the outside. Ovary woolly; style short, bent, woolly and scaly at the base. (s. Edgeworthii)

Native of the Himalaya as far west as Sikkim, where it was discovered by J. D. Hooker in 1849. It is not of much beauty, but of interest as an almost hardy member of the Edgeworthii series.