Rhododendron callimorphum var. callimorphum

Description with 23 photos. Photo: Finn Bertelsen. A rounded, evergreen shrub. hardy. Young shoots and leaves scattered glandular hairy, green. Glandular hairs short- and long-stipitate alternating, with purple glands. This type of glandular hairs occurs repeatedly on the following described plant parts. Petiole glandular hairy, crimson on the upper side, pale green on the lower side, grooved, as young floccose too with whitish, branched hairs, to 20 mm. Leaf blade orbicular to ovate-orbicular, coriaceous, to 7 cm. Leaf apex rounded, with tiny mucro. Leaf base subcordate, truncate or rounded. Leaf adaxial side dark green, glabrous, finely reticulate. Leaf abaxial side glaucous, glabrous, papillose. papillae 13-15 micrs. Flower bud globoid. Inflorescence an umbel-like raceme with 5-7 flowers. Rachis glandular, to 5 mm. Pedicel glandular hairy, pink/green, to 37 mm. Clayx with 5 triangular or broadly lingulate, glandular lobes fringed with glands, 1.4-2.4 mm. Corolla with 5 lobes, campanulate, glabrous on the in- and outside, pink, with crimson blotch, 35 mm wide, 35 mm deep (long). Ovary oblong, densely long-stipitate glandular, with 6-7 loculi, 4 mm. Stamens 10, unequal in length, shorter than corolla, 11-22 mm. Filaments glabrous, white. Anthers pale brown, 2.4-3.0 mm. Style glabrous, yellowish, shorter than corolla, to 25 mm, with upwards bent, turbinate stigma with purple margin, 1.9 mm. Capsule glandular, to 15 mm. Seeds wingless and with minor floating appendages, 2.0-2.3 mm. Origin: Handpollinated Scottish seeds (Alan Anderson AA4/2016). Native habitat: SW Sichuan, China at 1400-3500 (-4000) m according to Flora of China efloras org.