Rhododendron adenophorum I. B. Balfour & W. W. Smith.

Shrubs, 1–2.5 m tall; branchlets stout, with gray woolly tomentum when young, sometimes mixed with glands, occasionally glabrous. Petiole 10–15 mm, tomentose and shortly glandular-hairy, sometimes almost glabrous; leaf blade thickly leathery, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 6–12 × 2–4 cm; base rounded or ± cordate; apex acute or acuminate; abaxial surface indumentum tawny to cinnamon, dense, thickly spongy, hairs sometimes mixed with glands; adaxial surface dark green, glabrous. Inflorescence racemose-umbellate, 8–12-flowered; rachis ca. 10 mm, tomentose. Pedicel 1.5–3 cm, densely tomentose and short-glandular-hairy; calyx yellow-green, deeply lobed; lobes 5, 10–15 mm, oblong, with short glandular hairs throughout on outer surface and margin; corolla campanulate, white flushed pink to pink, with crimson spots on corolla-tube and on upper lobes, 3.5–4.5 cm, inner surface puberulent, lobes 5; stamens 10, unequal, filaments densely puberulent and glandular-hairy in lower half; ovary ca. 5 mm, densely shortly glandular-hairy; style ca. 3.2 cm, shortly glandular-hairy on lower part; stigma discoid. Capsule oblong-cylindric, straight, 15–20 × 6–7 mm, calyx persistent. Fl. May–Jul, fr. Aug–Nov.

Abies forests, Rhododendron thickets, mountain slopes; 3200–4200 m. SW Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan.