侧花杜鹃 ce hua du juan

Shrubs, evergreen, ca. 5 m tall; juvenile branchlets grayish brown, with dense small caducous scales. Petiole 8–14 mm, scaly; leaf blade leathery, narrowly oblong or lanceolate, 4.5–8 × 0.9–1.9 cm; base cuneate; apex acute, mucronate; abaxial surface glaucescent, scales 1–2 × their own diameter apart, puberulous; adaxial surface scales dense. Flowers not seen, infructescence shortly racemose, 2–3-fruited. Fruiting pedicels curved ca. 2–3 cm, densely scaly; fruiting calyx lobes ca. 1 mm, triangular, scaly, persistent; style slender, persistent, densely pubescent towards base. Capsule shortly cylindric, 10–15 × 4–5 mm, densely scaly. Fr. May–Nov.

Forests, valleys; 2700–3400 m. NW Yunnan.

The flowers of this distinctive species are not known. It is possible that Rhododendron lateriflorum should be placed in some other subsection, as the puberulous abaxial leaf surfaces are quite unlike those of the remaining species in R. subsect. Cinnabarina.