Rhododendron concinnum

Description with 21 photos. Photo: Finn Bertelsen. A densely branched, in time a few meter high, evergreen shrub. Fully hardy. Young shoots reddish brown, scaly. Petiole densely scaly, with fine hairs in the midgroove, 5-10 mm. Leaf blade lancet, elliptic or ovoid, aromatic, to 8 cm. Apex acute to acuminate, with mucro. Leaf base obtuse to acute. Leaf adaxial side green, tinted brownish by scales, scaly with scales 0-3 x their diam. apart (scales 170-285 micrs.), and with a pubescent midrib. Leaf abaxial side brownish-greyish green, densely scaly with golden brown, unequal scales, partly overlapping to 1 x their diam. apart (scales 170-285 micrs.). Inflorescence a semi umbel with 2-5 flowers, from terminal or subterminal buds. Flower bud spindle-shaped. Bud scales scaly, with ciliolate margins. Pedicel scaly, reddish, 10-12 mm. Calyx with 5 rounded lobes, densely scaly, c. 1.5 mm. Corolla  with 5 rounded, triangular lobes, zygomorphic, widely funnel-shaped, externally scaly, with internal hairs in the throat, purple red with dark purple spotting, c. 40 mm wide, c. 15 mm deep. Ovary channeled conical, densely scaly, finely hairy at base, with 5 locules, c. 4.5 mm. Stamens 10, unequal in length, with hairy girdles being on level with the ovary apex, purple. Style glabrous, longer than the stamens, reddish, with upwards bent, turbinate and bullate stigma, 1.4 mm. Capsule slightly conical, densely scaly, 14-16 mm. Seeds without wings and with small floating appendages, 1.3 – 1.8 mm. Native habitat: Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, China at 2300-3000 (3800) m iflg. Flora of China efloras org.