242. Rhododendron protistum I. B. Balfour & Forrest, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh. 12: 151. 1920.
翘首杜鹃 qiao shou du juan
Trees, 5–10 m tall; shoots stout, ca. 1 cm in diam., yellow-gray-tomentose. Petiole stout, terete, 25–40 mm, glabrous; leaf blade thickly leathery, oblong-lanceolate to oblong-oblanceolate, 12–45 × 5–20 cm; base cuneate; apex obtuse, mucronate; abaxial surface appressed pale brown tomentose, sometimes restricted to a marginal band at maturity; adaxial surface glabrous, sometimes with vestiges of hairs; midrib stout, conspicuously elevated abaxially. Inflorescence racemose-umbellate, 20–30-flowered; rachis ca. 60 mm. Pedicel stout, 1.5–2 cm, densely tawny-tomentose; calyx lobes 8, 2–3 mm, unequal, triangular, tomentose; corolla funnelform-campanulate, creamy-white, rose or deep purple-red, with dark basal blotch, 5–8 cm, nectar pouches present; lobes 8; stamens 16, unequal, filaments glabrous; ovary 9–11 mm, densely tawny fasciculate-tomentose; style ca. 4 cm, glabrous; stigma large and discoid-lobulate. Capsule cylindric, ca. 40 × 12 mm, tomentose. Fl. Mar–May, fr. Aug–Nov.
Mixed forests, Abies forests on mountain slopes; 2400–4200 m. SE Xizang, W Yunnan [NE Myanmar].
