Description

Shrub, l-2m; young shoots densely clothed with a mixture of adpressed villose and flattened strigose hairs. Leaves dimorphic, deciduous to ± persistent, subcoriaceous; spring leaves obovate to elliptic, 2~~4 x 1.2-2cm, 1.7-2.5 x as long as broad, apex rounded to acute, mucronate, base cuneate, margin entire, both surfaces with sparse adpressed greyish-brown strigose hairs; summer leaves oblong-obovate to oblan-ceolate, 13-40 x 4-20mm, up to 4 x as long as broad, otherwise as for spring leaves; petioles 2~4mm, adpressed-strigose. Inflorescence 2-3-flowered; pedicels c.5mm, densely covered with whitish flattened hairs. Calyx 2-3mm, densely strigose, lobes 1-3mm. Corolla funnel-shaped, pink, c.20mm; tube c.7mm long, glabrous. Stamens 10, c. as long as corolla, filaments papillate below middle. Ovary densely strigose; style strigose below. Capsule ovoid, c.8mm, strigose.

Distribution

China (Taiwan)

Altitude

Habitat

Mountain sides

Nomenclatural History

R. sasakii Wilson, J. Arnold Arb. 6: 181 (1925). Type: Taiwan, Nanto Prov., Horisha, planted in a hotel garden, apparently collected in the wild (holo. A).

Notes

References

Chamberlain, D.F. & Rae, S.J. (1990) A Revision of Rhododendron IV Subgenus Tsutsusi. Edinburgh Journal of Botany 47(2):124