Rhododendron camtschaticum ssp. camtschaticum

Description with 14 photos. Photo: Finn Bertelsen. A prostrate, decideous shrub. Hardy. Young shoots setose.Leaves sessile or almost sessile. Leaf blade obovate, chartaceous, to 5 cm.Leaf apex rounded, with mucro. Leaf base tapering. Leaf adaxial side medium-green, pubescent at the midrib. Leaf margin setose. Leaf abaxial side medium-green, with bristly veins and midrib. Inflorescence with 1-2 flowers arising from new shoots. Pedicel densely covered by long-stipitate glandular hairs and bristles. Calyx with 5 lobes. Lobes long, obovate, bristly with some glandular hairs along the margins. Corolla with 5 lobes, rotate, zygomorphic, purple, spotted. The two lower lobes are split to the base. Outer surface of corolla pubescent. Lobe margins ciliolate. Inner surface glabrous. Ovary ovoid, hairy, with inserted style. Stamens 10, unequal in length. Filaments pubescent towards base, purple. Style glabrous, purple, with upwards bent, disc-shaped stigma. Capsule hairy, to 12 mm. Seeds with tiny floating appendages, 0.9 – 1.3 mm. Native habitat: The northernmost Pacific marginal areas, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, S Alaska etc. according to Flora of North America efloras org. Remarks: Ssp. glandulosum is characterized by a glabrous outer corolla and by having glandular hairs, not bristles on the leaf margin and leaf abaxial side.