Rhododendron wadanum

Description with 19 photos. Photo: Finn Bertelsen. A few meters high, delicately built, deciduous shrub. Hardy. Young shoots at first slightly hairy, later glabrous. New leaves and inflorescences from terminal buds. Flowering before leafing. Leaves green, chartaceous, in whorls of 3, to 6 cm. Petiole a few mm long. Leaf blade rhomboidal. Leaf apex acute, with mucro. Leaf base broadly rounded cuneate. Leaf adaxial side with scattered fine hairs. Leaf abaxial side scattered hairy. Flower bud spindle-shaped, with bud scales densely covered by appressed, flat hairs. Inflorescence with 1-2 flowers. Pedicel covered by 1 mm long, ligulate hairs, 10-12 mm. Calyx with 5 rounded lobes, densely covered by adpressed hairs, c. 1 mm. Corolla with 5 lobes, widely funnel-shaped, zygomorphic, glabrous,purple with some dark spots, c. 50 mm wide, c. 15mm deep. Ovary ovoid, densely covered by white, ligulate, millimeter long setae, with 5 loculi, 3.5 mm. Stamens 10, dimorphic: 5 long, 5 short, glabrous, violet. Style straight, distally upwards bent, lower half ligulate hairy and stipitate glandular, purple, c. 35 mm, longer than stamens, with slightly turbinate, bullate, dark stigma, 1.3 mm. Capsule curved conical, densely hairy, c. 8-9 mm. Seeds wingless and with small floating appendages, 1.1-1.2 mm. Native habitat: Honshu, Japan according to treeflower.la.coocun.jp.