Rhododendron fauriei Franch, a new species for
the flora of the continental part of the Far East
N. S. Shemetova, Vladivostok, USSRDuring a field trip in 1968 in the Terneisk Province of the Primorsk Territory we found on the west slope of the Sikhota-Alinya a white-flowered Rhododendron fauriei Franch. This is a new species for the continental Far East. Until now a pink-flowered R. fauriei var. roseum has been reported from the Kurilian Islands (Kunashir and Iturup), but not on the continent.
The closest locality for our R. fauriei is in North Korea. There it grows 800 m above sea level, in mixed forests together with Acer, Quercus, Betula, Abies, Tilia, Pinus, Magnolia, Thalictrum, and Forsythia.
In the Sikhote-Aline several dozens of bushes of R. fauriei were found at 800-850 m above sea level on steep (35-40°) slopes under the tight pine-spruce forest. It grows 2.5-3 m (maximal 5 m) high with stems till 6 cm in diameter. It blooms richly in July, but produces only few fruits.
Translation from the Russian by Dr. E. E. Leppik, Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705, from an article published originally in Botanicheskii Zhurnal, Volume 55, No. 4, pp 550-551 (1970).
