Description

Large shrub or small tree; young shoots covered with adpressed flattened brown hairs. Leaves monomorphic, persistent, elliptic, 2-8 x l-3cm, 2-2.7 x as long as broad, apex acuminate, margin entire, base broadly cuneate to + rounded; both surfaces covered with adpressed shining brown hairs, glabrescent above except on midrib, lower surface paler, persistently adpressed brown-hairy, densely so on midrib and veins; petioles 5-8mm, strigose. Inflorescence 2-4-flowered; pedicels 6mm, densely covered with adpressed flattened shining brown hairs. Calyx 2~4mm, indumentum as for pedicels, lobes short, deltoid. Corolla funnel-campanulate, glabrous, red with darker flecks at base of upper lobes, 15-30mm; tube 7-10mm, glabrous, 4mm wide at base. Stamens 10, unequal, to c.30mm, shortly pilose below middle. Ovary densely covered with adpressed flattened shining brown hairs; style glabrous. Fruit not known.

Distribution

China (S Sichuan, NE Yunnan)

Altitude

Habitat

Thickets

Nomenclatural History

Notes

References

Chamberlain, D.F. & Rae, S.J. (1990) A Revision of Rhododendron IV Subgenus Tsutsusi. Edinburgh Journal of Botany 47(2):128