Rhododendron kaempferi

Description with 13 photos. Photo: Finn Bertelsen. An open, upright shrub. Semi-evergreen, with dimorphic leaves, larger spring leaves and smaller summer leaves. Hardy. Branchlets, petioles and pedicels covered by ligulate, adpressed setae with rugged tips. Leaf blade elliptic. Leaf apex acute obtuse to acute, with mucro. Leaf base cuneate. Leaf adaxial side evenly strigose by bristles extending from warty papillae. Bristles on leaf margin too. Leaf abaxial side with scattered bristles, more densely concentrated along veins. Calyx with 5 partly spreading, lingulate, hairy lobes. Corolla with 5 lobes, funnel-shaped, salmond-red to orange, spotted red. Ovary conical, densely covered by setae. Stamens 5 (6), proximally finely pubescent. Style glabrous, with upwards bent, swollen, yellowish stigma. Capsule densely strigose. Seeds 1.3 – 1.6 mm, with very small floating appendages. Native habitat: Japan – Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu according to Treeflower.la.coocan.jp.