277. Rhododendron calvescens I. B. Balfour & Forrest, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh. 11: 29. 1919.
变光杜鹃 bian guang du juan
Shrubs, 1–2 m; old branches coarse, bark flaking, with leaf scars; branchlets stout; young shoots with a thin very short-lived indumentum. Petiole adaxially flat and shallowly grooved, abaxially rounded, 10–15 mm, sparsely pubescent; leaf blade thinly leathery, lanceolate, elliptic or oblong-elliptic, 6–13 × 1.7–4 cm; base rounded, truncate or subcordate, bilaterally asymmetrical; apex apiculate; abaxial surface brownish hairy; adaxial surface green, sometimes rugulose, glabrous, midrib prominently raised abaxially, impressed adaxially; lateral veins 12–14-paired, flat on both surfaces. Inflorescence racemose-umbellate, 3–8-flowered; rachis short, conical, 3–5 mm. Pedicel stout or slender, 1–2.5 cm, sparsely hairy and glandular; calyx cup-shaped; lobes 5, 2–3 mm, unequal, lanceolate, base glandular, margin ciliate; corolla campanulate, rose, with purple lines lin the lower part, 3–3.5 cm; lobes 5, orbicular, 1.5–1.8 cm, apex emarginate; stamens 10, unequal, 1.2–2.5 cm, filaments hairy at base, anthers purplish red; ovary ovate, ca. 5 mm, glandular and pubescent or downy; style stout, glabrous. Capsule cylindric, slightly curved, ca. 20 × 5 mm. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Oct–Nov.
Abies forests, Picea forests, rocky slopes; 3300–3600 m. E Xizang, NW Yunnan.
