Description

Compact and rounded shrub to 1-5 m. Leaves (7-)10-18(-22) x(3-)5-9 mm, elliptic or oblong-elliptic, apex rounded, emucronate, base broadly cuneate, undersurface pale brown with darker speckling, the bicolorous scales contiguous or discontiguous, colourless to straw-coloured with pale golden centres and tan to dark amber with darker centres, usually either equal in number or the pale scales predominating. Inflorescence 3-5-flowered, pedicel 1-3 mm, pilose or lepidote. Calyx variable, often with unequal membranous lobes up to 6 mm, pilose or lepidote at base, margins ciliate. Corolla pale lavender to bluish purple or deep purple, broadly funnel-shaped, pubescent in the throat and sometimes minutely so on the tube outside, 10-15 mm, tube 3-5 mm. Stamens 10, filaments pubescent towards the base. Ovary lepidote, style 6-13 mm, usually slightly exceeding the stamens, glabrous or pubescent towards the base. Capsule ovoid, 5-6 mm, lepidote.

Distribution

China (N Sichuan, Quinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi)

Altitude

Habitat

Forests, mountainsides, moist meadows

Nomenclatural History

Notes

References

Cullen, J. (1980) A Revision of Rhododendron 1: Subgenus Rhododendron sections Rhododendron & Pogonanthum. Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 39(1):107