短尾杜鹃 duan wei du juan

Shrubs, evergreen, 2–3 m tall; branchlets densely scaly, puberulous. Petiole 8–14 mm; leaf blade leathery, lanceolate-oblong, 9–12.5 × 2.5–3.3 cm; base rounded; apex shortly caudate-acuminate; abaxial surface inconspicuously arachnoid puberulous, scales contiguous or nearly 1 × their own diameter apart, small; adaxial surface sparsely scaly. Inflorescence racemose, many-flowered; rachis 6–8(–20) mm, densely scaly. Pedicel 0.5–0.8 cm, densely scaly; calyx lobes 1.5–3 mm, ovate or triangular-ovate, densely scaly abaxially; margin ciliate; corolla tubular-campanulate, white, ca. 1.2 cm, tube more than 2 × as long as lobes, outer surface densely scaly, inner surface puberulous; lobes oblong; stamens 10, often as long as corolla, filaments pubescent; ovary densely scaly; style shorter than stamens, glabrous. Capsule 6–11 mm, densely scaly. Fl. Apr–Jun, fr. Sep–Oct.

Forests, valleys; 1400–2000 m. E Guizhou.

This taxon is only distantly related to the other two species in Rhododendron subsect. Micrantha and may have closer affinities with some other subsection.