News:
New Vireya Display
 
'Gardens by the Bay', Singapore - © Neil Puddey In mid-2012, Australian nurseryman Neil Puddey supplied over 850
vireya plants to the 'Gardens by the Bay' in Singapore to form the backbone of
a new display in the Cloud Forest Conservatory. Just a few months
after shipping the plants, Neil took a trip over to Singapore to
see how the plants were faring in their new home. See Neil's photos of his visit
here.
Hover over image for enlargement.
New Addition to the Archive
The latest article to be added to the Archive appeared only
recently in Rhododendron Species 2011, the yearbook
of the Rhododendron Species Foundation. Written by your editor,
'An Early
History of Vireya: The People, Places, and Plants of
the Nineteenth Century' is an attempt to chronologically
record the discovery and description of vireya rhododendrons
- from the first, Rhododendron malayanum found by William
Jack in Sumatra in 1821, through to the end of the 19th century,
and looks at some of the people behind the plants.
Two New Vireya Species Named
Two new species in Subgenus Vireya have been described
by Dr George Argent of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
in the past year - Rhododendron atrichum from Sarawak, Borneo and Rhododendron
trancongii from Vietnam.
Rhododendron atrichum (Section Euvireya) was previously
known as Rhododendron verticillatum forma velutinum
however further study of herbarium material, in tandem with
examination of living material flowering under this name at
RBGE, showed differences in the flower bud morphology and
the lack of simple hairs on the leaves, sufficient to warrant
publication as a new species.
At the same time, a new subspecies has been described - Rhododendron
atrichum ssp. dendrolepis - which differs from
ssp. atrichum in having shortly dendroid scales on
the leaves.
The full description of Rhododendron atrichum ssp.
atrichum and ssp. dendrolepis can be found
in the Journal of the American Rhododendron Society, Vol.63,
No.3, Summer 2009.
Rhododendron trancongii (Section Pseudovireya) bears
small yellow flowers and is similar to Rhododendron rushforthii,
differing most visibly in its dull green leaves with red petioles
and the deep red colouration exhibited by new foliage. R.
trancongii is also distinguished by the lack of simple
hairs on the ovary and the scales mixed with simple hairs
on the bract margins as compared to R. rushforthii.
The full description of Rhododendron trancongii
was published in Rhododendrons, Camellias & Magnolias
2010, the yearbook of the Rhododendron, Camellia &
Magnolia Group of the Royal Horticultural Society.
New Photographs
 
Rhododendron 'Uluru' - © K. & G. Hagan Several
batches of excellent photographs have been submitted to vireya.net
since our last Update - our thanks to everyone who sent them
in. They will all be appearing here over the coming months but
we start with a selection of pictures from Kaye and Gordon Hagan.
Kaye and Gordon grow a huge range of vireya cultivars in their garden in Tasmania, Australia, including the magnificent Rhododendron 'Uluru', right.
Click here to see all the latest images.
Hover over image for enlargement.
Earlier news items of note can be found in the News
Archive
|
|
