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Enkianthus deflexus (Griff.) Schneid.

Modern name

Enkianthus deflexus (Griff.) C.K.Schneid.

Synonyms

Rhodora deflexa Griff.; E. himalaicus Hook. f. & Thoms.

A shrub or small tree from 6 to over 20 ft high; young branches bright red, glabrous or hairy. Leaves produced in a cluster at the end of the shoot, 1 to 3 in. long, 12 to 134 in. wide, oval, obovate or lanceolate, tapering to both ends, with scattered hairs on both sides, but especially on the midrib beneath. Flowers produced in June along with the young shoots in a terminal, umbellate or racemose cluster, each of the eight to twenty blossoms borne on a drooping, downy stalk 34 to 114 in. long. Corolla broadly bell-shaped, 58 in. broad, of various shades of yellowish red with darker lines; lobes triangular, deeper-coloured. Calyx-lobes 112 in. long, triangular and long-pointed; ovary and style downy. Seed-vessel almost globose, downy. Bot. Mag., t. 6460.

Native of the Himalaya up to 11,000 ft altitude, and of W. China. The Himalayan plant is not very hardy and is usually wintered indoors, but the Chinese plants introduced for Messrs Veitch by Wilson in 1908 are hardier. This Chinese form is not quite identical with the Himalayan one figured in the Botanical Magazine, having usually more distinctly racemose flowers and glabrous young shoots. E. deflexus has the largest flowers in the genus, and Wilson described it as one of the most beautiful shrubs of the Western Chinese mountains.



From the Supplement (Vol. V)

This species has been reintroduced from both ends of its range: Nepal (Schilling 2490) and western Szechwan (Lancaster 486 and Rushforth 140).

Genus

Enkianthus

Other species in the genus