红萼杜鹃 hong e du juan

Shrubs, 1–2 m tall; older branches grayish; bark falling off in small irregular flakes; young shoots stout, glabrous or glandular. Petiole flat, 10–15 × 5–6 mm, glabrous; leaf blade leathery or thinly leathery, obovate-elliptic to broadly elliptic, broadest above middle of blade, 6–10 × 3–5 cm; base rounded or cuneate; margin reflexed; apex obtuse or rounded, apiculate; abaxial surface pale green, glabrous; adaxial surface green, glabrous; midrib prominently raised abaxially, impressed adaxially; lateral veins 13–15-paired. Inflorescence racemose-umbellate, usually 5–10-flowered; rachis 2–3 mm, glabrous. Pedicel 1–1.5 cm, glabrous or glandular; calyx crimson, cupular; lobes 5, 5–8 mm, unequal; corolla tubular-campanulate, deep rose to deep crimson, 4–5 cm, base with 5 black-crimson nectar pouches; lobes 5, suborbicular, 1.5–2 × 2.5–3 cm, emarginate; stamens 10, 3–4 cm, filaments glabrous; ovary cylindric, glabrous or glandular; style glabrous. Capsule slightly curved, 15–20 × 6–7 mm, glabrous or glandular. Fl. Apr–Jun, fr. Sep.

Rhododendron thickets, bamboo brakes, stream banks, rocky slopes; 3000–3700 m. W Yunnan [NE Myanmar].

Lower Taxa

• Rhododendron meddianum var. atrokermesinum Tagg
• Rhododendron meddianum var. meddianum