Gen info
• Etymology: Species epithet vidalii honors the Spanish botanist Sebastian Vidal y Soler.
• The species is threatened by habitat destruction and indiscriminate gathering for ornamental use.

Botany
• Lopong is a low, branching shrub 1 to 2 meters high. Leaves are oblong or obovate-oblong, 25 to 45 millimeters long, 10 to 20 millimeters wide, rounded at the tip, and pointed at the base, crowded in pseudo-whorls. Flowers are showy, white, about 3 centimeters long, and borne usually in clusters of two or three. Fruit is hairy, 1.5 to 2 centimeters long. Seeds are slightly more than 1 millimet4r in length, and bear appendages as long as themselves.

•  Shrub to small tree, to 3 m tall. Leaves crowded in pseudo whorls, ovate, with acute to rounded apex and tapering base, dark or pale green, to 4 cm long and to 2 cm wide. Flowers funnel-shaped, white, pedicelled, slightly scented. Stamens excerted, Fruit sub-cylindric, often curved. (5)

Distribution
- Endemic to the Philippines.
- Mostly in mossy forests on exposed ridges; also terrestrial on banks in rather barren places or grassland, epiphytic on large, moss covered trees or terrestrial on shrubby mountain side or exposed ridges; 1000-1200 m.
- Abra, Bataan, Batangas, Benguet, Cagayan, Camarines Sur, Isabela, Laguna, Mountain Province, Quezon, Zambales in Luzon; Mindoro.

Properties
- Leaves frequently have small nodules growing on them which children squash like lice; hence, kotto.

Uses
Folkloric
Used as a cure for itches.

Studies
• No studies found.

Availability
Wild-crafted.

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
Rhododendron vidalii / Minor Products of Philippine Forests
(2)
Rhododendrom vidalii / KEW: Plants of the World Online
(3)
Some comments on Bontoc ethnobotany / Lawrence A Reid, Domingo Madulid / Philippine Journal of Linguistics
(4)
Rhododendron vidalii Rolfe / Edited by Pieter B Pelser, 2022 / Co's Digital Flora of the Philippines
(5)
Rhododendron vidalii / Domingo A Madulid: Philippine Native Plants / Philstar Global

DOI: It is not uncommon for links on studies/sources to change. Copying and pasting the information on the search window or using the DOI (if available) will often redirect to the new link page. (Citing and Using a (DOI) Digital Object Identifier)