Rhododendron uniflorum Kingdon-Ward

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

Genus

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

Tibet
Traditional English name for the formerly independent state known to its people as Bod now the Tibet (Xizang) Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. The name Xizang is used in lists of Chinese provinces.

Credits

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

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

Dwarf prostrate shrub, the ends of the branches ascending to 0.5 m; young growth scaly. Leaves 1.3–2.5 × 0.5–1 cm, oblong-elliptic, apex acute or rounded, margin entire, lower surface with very distant scales that are equal, golden at first, soon turning brown, and have narrow rims. Flowers 1–2, in a terminal inflorescence; calyx lobes oblong, 1.5–2.5 mm; corolla purple, funnel-campanulate, 21–25 mm, tube 12–14 mm, outer surface densely pilose, sparsely scaly; stamens 10; ovary scaly, impressed below the declinate style that is glabrous and longer than the stamens. Flowering April-May. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

Distribution  Myanmar NE China SE Tibet

Habitat 3,050–3,650 m

RHS Hardiness Rating H4

Conservation status Near threatened (NT)

This is mentioned in the main work on page 740, under R. pemakoense, horticulturally a much more important species. Although not the oldest member of the subsect. Uniflora (R. pumilum dates from 1849), its name was used when Cowan and Davidian set up the Uniflorum series in 1948, and it consequently became the type of the subsection based on it. This is a pity, since R. pumilum is the only widespread species in the subsection. Curiously enough, the other five species that have been described are known from only seven gatherings in the wild, from the region of the Tsangpo Bend in south-east Tibet to north-west Burma, and from cultivated plants derived from them. These five are reduced to three in the Edinburgh revision: R. uniflorum, with var. imperator; R. pemakoense (including R. patulum in synonymy); and R. ludlowii. In view of the paucity of wild material, the treatment in the Edinburgh revision is ‘purely provisional’ (Rev. 1, p. 120).


var. imperator (Hutch. & Kingdon-Ward) Cullen

Synonyms
R. imperator Kingdon-Ward

Leaf apex acute. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

Distribution

  • Myanmar – NE

Awards
AM 1934 (Lord Swaythling, Townhill Park, Southampton) as R. imperator, from Kingdon-Ward 6884; flowers rosy purple.

RHS Hardiness Rating: H4


var. uniflorum

Leaf apex rounded.

Habitat 3,350–3,650m.