| Bell Snow Rhododendron |
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| File size | 575991 |
| Original date | 5/14/14 1:14 PM |
| Resolution | 2048 x 1536 |
| Flash | Flash did not fire, auto |
| Focal length | 4.28mm |
| Exposure time | 1/400s |
| Aperture | 3.3 |
| Focus Distance | |
| Metering Mode | Multi-segment |
| Camera make | SONY |
| Camera model | DSC-HX9V |
| Sensor type |
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Photo: |
Botanical name: Rhododendron niveum Family: Ericaceae (Blueberry family)
Bell Snow Rhododendron is a shrub or tree, 2-6 m
tall. Flowers are borne in a spherical dense 15-20-flowered cluster,
with rachis about 2 cm, yellow velvety. Flower-stalks are about 1 cm,
densely white- to rufous-velvet-hairy, calyx teeth minute, 1-2 mm.
Flowers are tubular-bell-shaped, deep magenta to deep lilac, 3-3.5 cm,
with 5 deep purple basal nectar pouches. Stamens are 10, unequal,
1.8-2.8 cm, filaments hairless. Ovary is cylindric or oblong, about 6
mm, densely whitish to tawny-tomentose, style hairless, stigma
capitate, small. Older branches are brownish, becoming hairless.
Branches are about 6 mm in diameter, below inflorescence. Young shoots
are grayish green, densely velvet-hairy. Leaf-stalks are 1.3-1.5 cm
long, leaves leathery, inverted-lanceshaped to elliptic, 8.5-11 x
3.6-4.6 cm, base tapering or rounded, margin curled, tip blunt or
rounded, apiculate. Underside has 1-layered indumentum densely
compacted, fawn, glabrescent, hairs dendroid, upper surface of
unfolding leaves scattered white floccose, at maturity hairless. Midrib
is prominent below, grooved above, lateral veins 11-16 on each side.
Capsule is shortly cylindric, blunt, 1.5-1.8 cm, blackish, roughened
with vestiges of tomentum. Bell Snow Rhododendron is found in the
Himalayas, in Bhutan, NE India, Sikkim, ata altitudes of 2600-3500 m.
Flowering: April-May.
| Identification credit: Sanjyoti Subba | Photographed in North Sikkim. |
• Is this flower misidentified? If yes,