Plate 9464 - Rhododendron crinigerum

Curtis's Botanical Magazine - Plate 9464 Rhododendron crinigerum Native Region: Tibet • Publication Date: January 1st, 1934 Distribution: -S • Tab Author: J. HUTCHINSON Botanical Description A rather remarkable feature of this beautiful Rhododendron may be observed in the perulae or winter bud-scales which surround the inflorescence. It is, of course, a well-known feature of most Rhododendrons that the terminal bud is a flower-bud and that the lateral axillary buds immediately below produce vegetative shoots. These bud-scales have apparently been gradually evolved in order to protect the embryonic flowers and leaves in winter. They are usually cast off when growth commences, though they are some- times persistent and then afford useful diagnostic characters. In most species their origin is not very evident from their structure, but in R. crinigerum it may be clearly seen that they are modified leaves. The outer scales are the smallest and are the ordinary brown dry chaffy structures common to most species. But the intermediate scales are strikingly different, being thinner and viscid with short bristly hairs on a distinct midrib, and they end in a long, sometimes quite leaf-like, acumen, showing that they are only partially modified leaves. It seems likely, therefore, that a close study of the winter-bud scales of all the species of the genus would furnish evidence of considerable importance as to their phylogeny, for the inflorescence of a Rhododendron, like that of a Composite, has no doubt arisen through the suppression of the inter- nodes and the reduction of an ordinary leafy shoot with axillary flowers. Even the small bracts which subtend the flowers themselves are equally only modified leaves. R. crinigerum is classified amongst the Barbatum series, which takes its name from that well-known species. The November 9th, 1936. Synonyms R. ixeuticum Balf. f. & W. W. Sm. in Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinb. IX. 240 (1916). A rather remarkable feature of this beautiful Rhododendron About This Print Original black and white uncolored botanical print from Curtis's Botanical Magazine (established 1787). This 9000s series print is from unissued publisher stock, never hand-colored, representing the authentic plate as it appeared in the magazine. Edited by Sir Arthur William Hill for The Royal Horticultural Society, London.