Rhododendron cinnabarinum ssp. xanthocodon

Description with 21 photos. Photo: Finn Bertelsen. A slightly upright, evergreen shrub. Hardy. Young shoots scaly with in part dark brown scales. Petiole scaly, to 10 mm. Leaf blade oblong elliptic, elliptic, broad oval,very aromatic, to 6 cm. Leaf apex obtuse, with mucro. Leaf base rounded, but with leaf margins tapering into the petiole. Leaf adaxial side medium-green, shiny, with spread scales 1 – 3 x the diam. apart. Scales 120 – 190 micrs. Leaf abaxial side grey-green, glaucous (white bloomed), densely scaly with light to dark brown, dissimilar scales touching to 1x their diameter apart. Scales 95 – 190 micrs. Flower bud terminal, scaly, with ciliolate bud scales. Inflorescence a raceme with 1 – 6 flowers. Rachis to 10 mm. Pedicel, calyx and ovary scaly with short-stipitate scales. Pedicel to 30 mm. Calyx with 5 broadly rounded lobes, densely scaly, c. 2 mm. Corolla with 5 lobes, campanulate, “fleshy”, yellow, outside glabrous, puberulent, scaly and with nectar pouches in the throat. Ovary densely scaly, with 5 loculi. Stamens 10, unequal in lenght. Filaments pubescent towards base. Style glabrous, longer than stamens, yellow, with upwards bent stigma,green, bullate. Seeds  with small floating appendages, 0.9-1.2 mm. Native habitat: Xizang (Tibet), NE India, Bhutan at 2900 – 4100 m according to Flora of China efloras org.