An evergreen, prostrate, spreading shrub, self-rooting freely from branches on the ground; young shoots, leaf-stalks, underside of leaves and flower-stalks all covered densely with pale down. Leaves 1⁄2 to 11⁄2 in. long, broadly ovate to cordate, three-lobed, the lobes rounded, toothed, very much wrinkled, the dense network of veins sunken above, prominent beneath; stalks 1⁄4 to 11⁄3 in. long, sparsely prickly. Flowers 5⁄8 in. across, solitary or in pairs, terminal mostly on short, leafy, lateral shoots; petals white, roundish, minutely ciliate; sepals large, downy, their lobes toothed. Fruits scarlet, 5⁄8 in. long, style and ring of stamens persisting. Bot. Mag., t. 9644.
Native of Formosa; introduced by the late Lord Headfort from seed collected by a Japanese. It is quite hardy and without being in any way showy it flowers and develops fruits every year and makes an interesting firmly matted ground-cover several feet across.
Until Messrs Hillier pointed out the error in their Manual R. calycinoides was grown as R. fockeanus, a quite different species, for which see under R. nepalensis.
Note. The name R. calycinoides, proposed by Hayata and published by Koidzumi in 1917, is unfortunately invalid, having been applied earlier by O. Kuntze to an Indian Species. Furthermore, the Formosan R. calycinoides is probably no more than a small-leaved variety of R. pentalobus Hayata, described, also from Formosa, in 1908.