A modern reference to temperate woody plants, including updated content from this site and much new material, can be found at Trees and Shrubs Online.

Rhododendron wasonii Hemsl. & Wils.

Modern name

Rhododendron watsonii Hemsl. & E.H.Wilson

A sturdy evergreen shrub 2 to 5 ft high; young shoots thick, stiff, greyish white at first. Leaves narrowly oval or ovate, pointed, mostly rounded at the base, 2 to 3 in. long, 1 to 112 in. wide, of hard leathery texture, ultimately glabrous and dark green above, clothed beneath with a close, rusty-brown down which becomes very dark on the two-year-old leaves; stalk 14 to 12 in. long. Flowers produced in March and April in a terminal truss of six to ten. Corolla bell-shaped, 114 to 2 in. wide, creamy white or lemon-yellow, sometimes shaded with rose, or wholly rose-coloured, always spotted with crimson; five-lobed, the lobes overlapping. Calyx very small; flower-stalk 12 to 1 in. long, both white with down. Stamens ten, about 12 in. long, downy at the base; anthers dark brown; ovary clothed with white down; style as long as the corolla, glabrous, pale yellow. Bot. Mag., t. 9190. (s. Taliense ss. Wasonii)

Native of W. Szechwan, China; discovered and introduced in 1904 by Wilson, who observed that it is ‘a common-low-growing species partial to rocks in forests’. It is a hardy, slow-growing species, with handsome foliage, with flowers, in the best form, of a clear, pale yellow, blotched at the base.

var. rhododactylum Hort. R. rhododactylum Balf. f., nom. inedit. – Flowers white, lined with pink. Raised from Wilson’s no. 1876. Award of Merit, March 27, 1923, when shown from Bodnant, as R. rhododactylum. For this name see Rhodo. Soc. Notes, Vol. II, p. 258.


Genus

Rhododendron

Other species in the genus