Rhododendron brachyanthum ssp. hypolepidotum

Description with 18 photos. Photo: Finn Bertelsen. A delicately built, rounded, evergreen shrub < 1m. Young shoots and petioles scattered scaly. Scales dimorphic, light (majority) or dark (few), short-stipitate or sessile. Petiole to 9 mm. Leaf blade obovate to elliptic, coriaceous, very aromatic, to 5 cm. Leaf apex rounded, with mucro. Leaf base tapering. Leaf adaxial side dark green, shiny, scattered scaly. Scales 1-3 x their dia. apart, 190-210 micrs. Leaf abaxial side glaucous, scaly. Scales concave, dimorphic, yellowish or dark brown (few), 1-3 x their diam. apart, 150-240 micrs. Inflorescence umbel-like, with 3-6 flowers. Pedicel slender, weighed down by the flower, scattered scaly, to c. 4 cm. Calyx with 5 lobes. Lobes ovate, scaly, c. 5 mm. Corolla with 5 lobes, campanulate, puberulent in the throat, pale yellow, c. 15 mm long. Ovary densely scaly, 2-3 mm. Stamens 10, not extending from the corolla. Filaments pubescent towards the base. Style short, stout, angular bent, inserted in the ovary, with turbinate, green stigma. Capsule ovoid, densely scaly, partly enclosed by persistent calyx, to 6 mm. Native habitat: SE Xizang (Tibet), C and W Yunnan, China and NE Myanmar at 3000-3600 (-4000) m according to Flora of China.