Rhododendron javanicum ssp. brookeanum



Rhododendron javanicum ssp. brookeanum
at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh

First discovered and described in 1848 by the British explorer Sir Hugh Low who, in 1851, made the first proven ascent of Mt. Kinabalu, Sabah. Rhododendron javanicum ssp. brookeanum is named for Sir James Brooke, the Rajah of Sarawak at that time (the species epithet indicating that the plant was originally collected in Java). The species was one of the first Vireyas introduced into cultivation, as Rhododendron brookeanum, by Thomas Lobb whilst working for the famous Veitch Nurseries and has remained popular on account of its ease of cultivation and magnificent blooms of orange, red, yellow or bi-coloured orange (lobes) and yellow (throat), funnel-shaped flowers borne up to 14 per umbel. The elliptic, or narrowly elliptic leaves, up to 25cm in length and 8cm across, are often distinctively puckered with the midrib slightly raised in the lower half of the leaf.

Rhododendron javanicum ssp. brookeanum

Growing to a height of 4 metres, Rhododendron javanicum ssp. brookeanum is a predominately epiphytic species, particularly at lower elevations and can be found from sea level up to 1525m in Sabah and Sarawak, where it is common, also in Kalimantan.

Rhododendron javanicum is a variable species and there are a number of other related subspecies, namely:-

R. javanicum ssp. javanicum - the original species first collected in Java.

R. javanicum ssp. gracile - with narrower leaves, not puckered, and bearing yellow flowers, found from sea level to 1500m in Sarawak.

R. brookeanum ssp. cockburnii - named after P. F. Cockburn, former Forest Botanist at Sandakan who collected this plant on Gunong Lotung at 975m. Scarlet flowers.

R. javanicum ssp. kinabaluense - restricted to Mt. Kinabalu (bi-coloured red/yellow) and the Crocker Range (orange) above 900m.

R. javanicum ssp. moultonii - after J. C. Moulton, curator of the Sarawak Museum, who first discovered this variety by the Limbang River, Sarawak. Yellow or orange flowered.

R. javanicum var. cladotrichum - similar to the type but with stems and leaves minutely hairy.

R. javanicum var. schadenbergii - named for Dr. Alexander Schadenberg, a German ethnologist.

R. javanicum ssp. palawanense - named after Palawan island in the Philippines where it was first collected.

R. javanicum ssp. teysmannii - differs from ssp. javanicum by the densely hairy ovary and from ssp. brookeanum by the hairy pedicels.

Rhododendron javanicum ssp. kinabaluense
at the Royal Botanic Garden Kew

When shown to the Royal Horticultural Society, London, in 1869, Rhododendron brookeanum, as it was then known, was awarded a First Class Certificate, and several clones have subsequently been registered - 'Mandarin', with large bi-coloured flowers, collected on Mt.Kinabalu, FCC 1970; 'Raja', with scented flowers, FCC 1972, later identified by Dr. Sleumer as ssp. gracile; 'Mesilau' and 'Titan', vigorous with paler orange flowers.

Rhododendron javanicum ssp. brookeanum has long been a favourite with hybridists and there are now over 80 named hybrids with "brookeanum blood".

Rhododendron javanicum ssp. moultonii

Rhododendron javanicum ssp. gracile