Rh. keiskei var. keiskei

Description with 20 photos. Photo: Finn Bertelsen. A relatively low, evergreen shrub. Fully hardy in the garden. Young shoots scattered scaly, light green. Petiole with or without wings, scattered scaly, with or without scattered bristles and puberulous, to 10 mm. Leaf blade lanceolate, elliptic or rarely obovate, aromatic, to 8 cm. Leaf apex acute to rounde, with mucro. Leaf base obtuse. Leaf adaxial side olive green, with scattered scales, puberulous mainly along the midrib. Scales brown or golden, 2-7 x their diam. apart, 180 – 240 micrs. Leaf abaxial side light olive green, scaly with brown scales, 1-3 x their diam. apart, 210 – 290 micrs. Flower bud broad spindle-shaped, with dark scale spots on the cover scales. Inflorescence with 2-3 (5) flowers. Pedicel and calyx with colourless scales. Calyx small, scaly with 5 tiny, broadly rounded lobes. Corolla with 5 lobes, widely funnel-shaped, zygomorphic, pale yellow, yello-brown or green spotted, with a few external scales. Ovary conical, densely scaly. Stamens, 10 of unequal length, puberulous towards base. Style with proximal, fine bristles, otherwise glabrous, with upwards bent, slightly expanded, yellowish stigma. Style and stamens protrude beyond the mouth of corolla. Capsule cylindrical, channelled, scaly, to 13 mm, lepidote. Seeds with small floating appendages, 1.1-1.2 mm. Native habitat of var. keiskei: Japan, S Honshu to Kyushu, according to Pearson, R., 1978. Jour. Am. Rh. Soc., Vol. 32,2.