Description

Straggling shrub up to 6 m, with grey bark. Leaves sometimes subdeciduous, lanceolate or ± oblong, apex acuminate into a long and conspicuous drip-tip, base rounded, margins somewhat distantly crenulate, 50-90 x 13-26(-37) mm, upper surface variably lepidote, midrib usually glabrous, lower surface with large, distant, broadly rimmed, golden scales. Inflorescences mostly axillary, terminal inflorescence often lacking, pedicels 6-15 mm, lepidote and sometimes puberulent at the base. Calyx undulate or obscurely 5-lobed, lepidote, sometimes loriform-ciliate. Corolla pale yellow with greenish spots on the inside of the upper lobes, 18-25 mm, tube up to 11 mm, pubescent outside with retrorse hairs, their density variable. Stamens 10, filaments densely pubescent towards the base. Ovary lepidote, often pubescent at apex. Style glabrous or pubescent at base. Capsule lepidote, narrowly cylindric, 9-11 mm.

Distribution

China (C Sichuan, widely distributed but scattered)

Altitude

Habitat

Hillsides, slopes and forest margins, (550-)1750-3000 m

Nomenclatural History

R. costulatum Franchet, Journ. de Bot. 9:399 (1895). Type: China, Szechuan, Kiala, Soulie 492 (holo. P—n.v., iso. E). R. lemeei Leveilie, Feddes Rep. 13:339 (1914). Type: China, Yunnan, monts de Ta tchai, 3000 m, iv 1913, Maire (holo. E). R. biinii Leveilie, Bull. Acad. Geogr. Bot. 24:21 (1915). Type: China, Yunnan, braisse de coteaux a Tscheu-fong-tchan, 550 m, v 1912, Maire (holo. E)

Notes

References

Cullen, J. (1980) A Revision of Rhododendron 1: Subgenus Rhododendron sections Rhododendron & Pogonanthum. Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 39(1):79