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Abelia engleriana (Graebn.) Rehd.

Modern name

Abelia engleriana (Graebn.) Rehder

Synonyms

Linnaea engleriana Graebn.

A deciduous shrub of bushy habit, 3 to 6 ft high, with brown, minutely downy young bark, afterwards glabrous and shining, ultimately peeling. Leaves oval-lanceolate, tapered at both ends, but more slenderly at the apex; 34 to 112 in. long, 13 to 58 in. wide; bright green and glabrous above, paler and glossy beneath, with scattered hairs on the midrib and veins; margins bristly-hairy; stalk 18 in. or less long. Flowers borne usually in pairs from the end of short lateral twigs; sepals two, narrowly oval, 13 in. long, minutely ciliated; corolla 58 in. long, funnel-shaped, curved, minutely downy outside, rose-coloured. Stamens shorter than the corolla. Flowers from June onwards.

Native of Szechwan, China; originally discovered by Henry about 1888; introduced to cultivation twenty years later by Wilson when collecting for Harvard University. Flowered at Kew in 1911.


Genus

Abelia

Other species in the genus