Nutt.
Description
Rhododendron kendrickii is an eastern Himalayan species centred on Bhutan, north-east India (Arunachal Pradesh) and adjacent south-west China and northern Myanmar, with Nepal at the western limit; the 71 georeferenced records also include cultivated material in New Zealand. It is a component of cool, humid temperate forest, growing in mixed evergreen woodland, on forest margins and steep mossy slopes. The Bhutan collection at Tumching-La at about 2900 m sits squarely within its typical altitudinal range of roughly 2400-3300 m in the upper temperate broadleaved zone, where it flowers in spring.
It is an evergreen shrub or small tree, often 3-6 m tall, with smooth bark and stout branchlets. The leaves are oblong-lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, leathery, acuminate, dark glossy green above and pale beneath, with a prominent midrib and narrowly recurved margins. The flowers are borne in compact, many-flowered trusses; the corolla is tubular-campanulate, fleshy, and rich crimson to scarlet with darker nectar pouches at the base. Stamens are typically ten, the style glabrous, and the ovary develops into a woody, curved capsule.
The species belongs to subgenus Hymenanthes, the elepidote (non-scaly) rhododendrons, within subsection Irrorata, characterised by tubular red corollas and glabrous ovaries. The brightly coloured, nectar-rich flowers are adapted to bird and insect pollination in the spring monsoon margin. Locally common within its range and not currently regarded as threatened, it nonetheless depends on intact temperate forest and is affected by logging, grazing and fire.
Author: Nutt. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Cox & Cox The Encyclopedia of Rhododendron Species, The Rhododendron Handbook (Royal Horticultural Society)