瑶岗仙杜鹃 yao gang xian du juan

Small shrubs, 0.4–0.6 m tall; young shoots sparsely scaly and hispid. Petiole 6–8 mm, scaly, densely villous; leaf blade leathery, elliptic to obovate-elliptic, 2.5–5 × 1.5–2.8 cm; base broadly cuneate to rounded; apex obtuse, mucronate; abaxial surface densely brownish-scaly and pubescent; adaxial surface densely hispid, midrib prominent abaxially. Inflorescence 1- or 2-flowered. Pedicel 0.8–1 cm, densely scaly; calyx deeply 5-lobed; lobes ca. 6 mm, long-ovate, sparsely scaly and hairy above, glabrous below; corolla funnelform, creamy white, sparsely scaly outside, ca. 4.4 × 6 cm; stamens 10, 2.5–2.8 cm; filaments pubescent below; ovary densely scaly and pubescent; style ca. 4.3 cm, densely scaly in lower 1/3. Capsule cylindrical to cylindrical-ovoid, ca. 25 × 10 mm. Fl. May.

Dry rock crevices; ca. 1100 m. Hunan (Yizhang).

The original author compared this species with Rhododendron yizhangense, pointing out that it differed in having a leaf blade abaxially with a raised midrib and densely hairy surface, calyx lobes pubescent above, and in features of the capsule. The raised midrib on the abaxial surface of the leaf blade suggests an affinity with R. levinei, but the two species are otherwise perfectly distinct. The present authors have seen no material of this species and so cannot confirm its true affinities.