Rhododendron beesianum

Description with 12 photos. Photo: Finn Bertelsen. Upright growing shrub or small tree, evergreen. Shoots stout, glabrous with dark sticky buds. Petiole tapering distally, green or crimson, to 22 mm. Leaf blade oblanceolate, coriaceous, to 27 x 7.5 cm. Leaf apex acuminate, with mucro. Leaf base rounded. Leaf adaxial side dark green with yellowish midrib, glabrous. Leaf abaxial  side with thin, unistrate, brownish indumentum of 4-winged, radiate hairs. Flower bud globular. Inflorescence with up to 20 flowers. Rachis to c. 25 mm. Pedicel reddish, glabrous or slightly hairy, to 33 mm. Calyx with 5 lobes, triangular, glabrous, 1-2 mm. Corolla with 5 lobes, broadly campanulate, white with pink tinge and lines, spotted, with or without red blotch. Ovary hairy. Stamens 10, unequal in length, pubescent towards base. Style glabrous, with upwards bent green stigma. Capsule curved, cylindrical, with scattered ?radiate hairs, to 35 mm. Seeds winged and with floating appendages, 1.9 – 2.5 mm. Locality of origin: Xiangcheng County, Sichuan, 3900 m. Native habitat: SW Sichuan, NW Yunnan, SE Xizang, China and NE Myanmar at (2700-) 3200 – 4500m according to Flora of China.