Rhododendron elliottii
Parishia subsection
Epithet: after Mr Elliott, a friend of its discoverer, Sir George Watt.
H1-3
AM 1934 (Embley Park) flowers crimson, FCC 1937 (Clyne Castle) flowers deep scarlet.
Height: 2.4 - 4.6m, a shrub or tree.
Flowers: 9-15 flowered, tubular-campanulate, 45-55mm long, crimson, scarlet or deep rose; 5 nectar pouches at the base.
May-July.
Leaves: 60-150 x 26-60mm, oblong-elliptic, oblong-oval or oblong-lanceolate, upper surface dark green, shiny, glabrous (in young leaves, hairy with stellate hairs; underside at first moderately or densely hairy with discontinuous indumentum of stellate hairs which ultimately remain or partially or almost completely fall off).
Distribution: Naga Hills, Assam 2,400 - 2,750m.
Location: Dorset
Photo: Robin Whiting