Rhododendron hirsutum
Description with 21 photos. Photo: Finn Bertelsen. Hairy Alprose is a low, compact and spreading shrub, being fully hardy. Branchlets and petioles with scattered light and dark scales and with bristles. Petiole to 8 mm. Leafblade elliptic to lanceolate, to 35 mm. Leaf apex acute-obtuse to acute, with tiny mucro. Leaf base cuneate, tapering. Leaf adaxial side medium green, slightly rugose, with scattered scales 1-4 x their diam. apart, 250 micrs. Leaf margin crenulate, bristly. Leaf abaxial side pale green, papillose, with scattered golden and dark scales 1-3 x their diam. apart, 240-300 micrs. Flower bud yellow-green, pointed ovoid, with puberulent bud scale margins. Pedicel scaly with colourless scales. Calyx ligulate lobate, scaly and with marginal bristles. Corolla with 5 lobes, tubular-campanulate, purple red (or white), with scattered colourless scales on the outside. The inside of the tube puberulent. Ovary ovoid, with bright scales. Stamens 10, unequal in length.Filaments pubescent towards base. Style short, yellow-green, slightly longer than the ovary, puberulent at base, with dark green truncate end, with non-swollen stigma. Capsule ovoid, scaly, c. 5 mm. Seeds wingless, with tiny floating appendages, c. 0.85 mm. Native habitat: European Alps at 1600 – 2500 m according to IUCNredlist.org.