Rhododendron faberi

Description with 27 photos. Photo: Finn Bertelsen. An open, round, later erect, several meters high, evergreen shrub. Hardy. Young shoots greyish tomentose. Petiole with greyish brown tomentum of ramiform hairs and scattered glandular hairs, to 28 mm. Leaf blade oblong obovate, or rarely oblong elliptic, elliptic, lancet, leathery, to 14 cm. Leaf apex acuminate, with mucro. Leaf base subcordate, truncate or obtuse. Leaf adaxial side mat green, glabrous. Leaf abaxial side dark beige, with bistrate indumentum. Upper layer thin, felty, made up of ramiform hairs, glandular along the midrib. Lower layer very thin, whitish. Flower bud globular with hairy and glandular hairy scales. Inflorescence an umbellelate raceme with 7-9 flowers. Rachis to 8 mm. Pedicel pink/green, glandular hairy, to 25 mm. Calyx with 5 lobes, glandular hairy with amethyst coloured glands. Lobes lingulate, to 10 mm. Corolla with 5-(6) lobes, campanulate, white with a pink central stripe on each petal, sometimes faint purple spotted, pubescent internally, c. 40 mm long, c. 60 mm wide. Ovary conical, densely glandular hairy, with 6-7 loculi, 3-4 mm. Stamens 10-(11), unequal in length. Filaments white, hairy/glandular hairy at base. Anthers black, 2-3 mm. Style white, at base slightly hairy and glandular, to 35 mm, with upwards bent, truncate cone shaped, yellow stigma, 1.9-2.4 mm. Capsule densely stipitate glandular, to 20 mm. Seeds with floating appendages and wings, 1.9 – 3.1 mm. Origin: Seeds collected on Emei Shan 2012. Native habitat (endemic) restricted to Emei Shan and Wawu Shan, Sichuan, China.