Description

Shrub to 5 m; bark of older branches smooth, purplish, young shoots glabrous. Leaves narrowly elliptic to narrowly elliptic-oblanceolate, abruptly acuminate at the apex, tapered to the base, 65-120 x 25-40 mm, upper surface dark green, lower surface conspicuously white-papillose with distant, small, equal, golden yellow to brown scales. Inflorescence many-flowered, racemose, pedicels thin, rather strict in flower, lepidote, pruinose, 20-30 mm. Calyx a rim or sometimes slightly lobed, 1-2 mm, glabrous, elepidote or sparsely lepidote, pruinose. Corolla fleshy, 12—17 mm, tube 6-8 mm, reddish purple, pruinose, glabrous and elepidote. Capsule lepidote, cylindric, 6-9 mm.

Distribution

N Burma, China (W Yunnan, SE Xizang)

Altitude

Habitat

Scrub, thickets and on forest margins

Nomenclatural History

R. mirabile Kingdon Ward, Gard. Chron. 92:465 (1932) nomen nudum.

Notes

References

Cullen, J. (1980) A Revision of Rhododendron 1: Subgenus Rhododendron sections Rhododendron & Pogonanthum. Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 39(1):148