Rhododendron yaoshanense

Description with 18 photos. Photo: Finn Bertelsen. A low, prostrate, evergreen shrub. Hardy. Young shoots glabrous. petiole glabrous, grooved above, slightly winged, to 15 mm. Leaf blade elliptic to obovate, with revolute margins, coriaceous, to 70×38 mm. Leaf apex rounded, with mucro. Leaf base obtuse to cuneate. Leaf adaxial side dark green, shiny, finely reticulate. Leaf abaxial side pale brownish, with appressed, thin, unistrate indumentum of branched, tape-like hairs (foliaceous). Inflorescence umbel-like with short rachis and typically 4 flowers. Pedicel tomentose, to 15 mm. Calyx with 5 lobes, 2.5 mm. Lobes widely triangular, tomentose and ciliate. Corolla with 5 lobes, funnel-campanulate, glabrous on the outside, finely pubescent towards the inside base, white, dark pink spotted, c. 60 mm wide, c. 40 mm deep (long). Ovary conical, channelled, densely pubescent, with 5 loculi, 4.5-5.0 mm. Stamens 10, unequal in length, shorter than corolla, 10-25 mm. Filaments white, pubescent towards base. Anthers spotted brown, 2.4 mm. Style glabrous, yellowish, to mouth of corolla, 27 mm with turbinate, bullate, purple black stigma, 1.8 mm. Capsule and seeds unknown. Origin: Seeds ARS 2010/704. Native habitat (endemic) on Yaoshan, Qiaojia County, Yunnan, China at 3700-3900 m according to Gao, L-M & Zhang, S-D, 2008, Ann. Bot. Fennici 45, p. 204-206.