Emu Valley Newsletter – February 2018

• Date: 11th February 2018
• author: Maurie Kupsch

R. LUDWIGIANUM

Within the rather complex Subsection Maddenia the R. ciliicalyx aggregate could be the most confusing. Members of this aggregate are to be found from India to Burma, Thailand, Laos and China.

One member is R. ludwigianum first collected by Hosseus in 1905 at Doi Chiengdao, Thailand and named after his father Ludwig Hosseus, later to be collected by others in the same area.

The flowers are white with or without a yellow blotch, have five crinkled lobes and as with so many rhodos no scent.

This species is uncommon in cultivation and could be mistaken for R. dendricola or R. pachypodum but can be easily recognized by the very thick leathery elliptic leaves with a scaly lower surface, the small calyx with mar- gins fringed with long hairs and by a later flowering time.

As with a number of tender species R. ludwigianum is usually a plant for the greenhouse plant overseas but not at Emu Valley where it can be viewed near the junction of the Main Gazebo Road and Bob Malone Drive in association with R. excellens.

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