Rhododendron floccigerum

Description with 19 photos. Photo: Finn Bertelsen. An evergreen shrub, up to a few meters high. Hardy, but need some protection. Young shoots brownish tomentose. Petiole brownish tomentose, to 1.3 cm. Leaf blade narrow elliptic to oblong, with revolute margins, coriaceous, to 2.8 x 9.4 cm. Leaf apex cute or acute-obruse, with mucro. Leaf base obtuse. Leaf adaxial side initially thin brown tomentose, later glabrous, dark green. Leaf abaxial side, pale grey green, glaucous, papillose, with patchy, loose, brown indumentum of ramiform hairs with long stems and tape-like branches. Flower bud broadly ovoid with brown tomentose scale margins. Inflorescence umbel-like, with 6 flowers. Pedicel sparsely tomentose, to 15 mm. Calyx with 5 irregular, rounded, tomentose lobes, 3.3 mm. Corolla with 5 lobes, tubular-campanulate, fleshy, glabrous inside and outside, with 5 nectar pouches, red, 40 mm wide, 22 mm deep (long). Ovary conical, grooved, densely tomentose, with 6 loculi, 4.3 mm. Stamens 10, unequal in length. Fimanents glabrous, white, 17-26 mm. Anthers dark brown, 2.4 mm. Style straight, slender, glabrous, 24 mm with yellow, bullate stigma, 0.8 mm. Locality of origin: Dulongjiang valley, Gongshan County, NW Yunnan, China at 3600 m. Native habitat: SE Xizang (Tibet) and NW Yunnan, China at 2300-4000m according to Flora of China efloras org.