蔗黄杜鹃 zhe huang du juan

Shrubs; young shoots sparsely coarsely strigose and spreading pubescent. Petiole 6–7 mm. Leaf blade leathery, elliptic to lanceolate-elliptic, 2–5.5 × 1–2.2 cm; base tapering or narrowly cuneate; margin revolute; apex acute and mucronate; abaxial surface densely yellow-white felted and coarsely villous-strigose; adaxial surface glabrescent and lustrous. Inflorescence ca. 10-flowered. Pedicel 0.6–0.7 cm, coarsely strigose; calyx cup-shaped; lobes rounded; corolla narrowly funnelform, purplish, 2.8–3.4 × 1.8–2 cm; tube cylindric, 1.5–1.8 cm; lobes oblong-obovate, 1.3–1.6 × ca. 0.7 cm; stamens 5, unequal, 3–3.5 cm, shorter than the style, filaments puberulent; ovary ovoid, ca. 4 × 2.5 mm, coarsely strigose; style ca. 3.7 cm, sparsely coarsely strigose below.

Forest margins, thickets. SW Fujian.

This species is almost certainly synonymous with, or a hybrid of, Rhododendron rufulum (see under R. apricum above).