Rhododendron augustinii ssp. chasmanthum

Description with 24 fotos. Foto: Finn Bertelsen. A dense, branched, few meter high, evergreen shrub. Hardy. Young shoots brownish, glabrous or puberulent with dense, microscopic hairs (<100 micrs.) and scattered scales. Petiole puberulent, 7-15 mm. Leaf blade elliptic to oblong lanceolate, shiny, to 10 cm. Leaf apex acuminate, with mucro. Leaf base obtuse to rounded acute. Leaf adaxial side with scattered scales, dark green. Scales 130-170 micrs. Leaf abaxial side grey green, glabrous or puberulent on the midrib, with scattered scales 2-5 x their diameter apart. Scales golden, 190-285 micrs. Flower bud terminal, spindle-shaped, with bud scales scattered scaly and ciliolate. Inflorescence with 2-6 flowers. Pedicel glabrous, scaly close to calyx, 13-18 mm. Calyx with 5 rounded lobes, scaly and with marginal hairs, c. 1 mm. Corolla with 5 lobes, broadly funnel-shaped, zygomorphic, scaly on the outside, pubescent in the throat, white spotted yellow brown, c. 55 mm wide, c. 15 mm deep (long). Ovary conical, densely scaly, with 5 loculi, with inserted style, 4.5 mm. Stamens 10, unequal in length, pubescent towards base, white. Style glabrous, reflexed, longer than stamens, yellowish, 36-40 mm, with turbinate, bullate, dark brown stigma, 1.6 mm. Capsule cylindrical, channeled, densely scaly, 14-16 mm. Seeds with moderate floating appendages, without wings, 1.2-1.6 mm. Native habitat: Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan, China at 1700-3400 (-4200) m according to Flora of China efloras org.