(Griff.) C.K.Schneid.
Description
Enkianthus deflexus is a deciduous shrub or small tree of the temperate Himalaya and southwestern China, distributed through China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar, and very well documented with around 1667 GBIF records (further records reflect wide cultivation in Europe, North America and East Asia). It forms part of the understorey and forest-margin vegetation of moist temperate forest and Rhododendron-dominated slopes, typically between about 2400 and 3600 m. The cited collections from Lachung in Sikkim (2900 m), Milka Danda in east Nepal (2850 m) and Tonglu in West Bengal (3100 m), all flowering in May, mark its synchronous late-spring anthesis across the cool, humid mid-montane belt.
The species is a many-branched shrub whose leaves cluster toward the ends of the twigs in pseudowhorls; they are obovate to elliptic, finely serrulate, often colouring richly in autumn, and subtended by reddish young growth. The flowers are borne in pendent terminal racemes or umbel-like clusters, each on a slender, often reflexed pedicel (whence deflexus). The corolla is campanulate, creamy to yellowish suffused with red veining, with five short recurved lobes; ten stamens are enclosed within. The fruit is an erect, dehiscent woody capsule on the recurving pedicel, releasing small winged or angled seeds.
Enkianthus is an early-diverging genus of the Ericaceae, sister to much of the rest of the family, and its bell-shaped, nectar-bearing flowers are pollinated by bees and other insects. E. deflexus is valued horticulturally for its dainty blossoms and brilliant autumn foliage, explaining its broad cultivated footprint. Within its native range it is common and not of conservation concern, a characteristic and widespread component of Himalayan temperate forest understoreys.
Author: (Griff.) C.K.Schneid. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China (Ericaceae), Stevens Revision of Enkianthus