柔毛杜鹃 rou mao du juan

Small multi-branched shrubs, ca. 1 m tall; old branches deep gray; young shoots short and slender, red or orange-red scaly, densely pubescent and hispid. Petiole ca. 3 mm, like stem, pubescent; leaf blade thickly leathery, narrowly lanceolate, oblanceolate, or lanceolate, ca. 2.2 × 0.6 cm; base cuneate; margin revolute; apex acute, apiculate; abaxial surface gray-green, scaly, densely white-pubescent and thinly hispid; adaxial surface deep green, sparsely scaly, densely white-pubescent and thinly hispid, midrib raised abaxially, concave adaxially. Inflorescence subterminal, umbellate, 3- or 4-flowered; bud scales leathery, rounded, apiculate, outside densely pubescent and densely scaly. Pedicel 0.6–0.8 cm, scaly, hispid and pubescent; calyx without conspicuous lobes, small, abaxially scaly and densely pubescent; corolla shortly tubular, with open lobes, 5-lobed to below middle, pale red, ca. 0.8 cm, outer surface scaly; stamens 8–10, unequal, long ones slightly exserted from corolla, filaments glabrous at base, pubescent above; ovary 5-locular, scaly, densely pubescent; style glabrous. Capsule cylindric, ca. 6 mm, sparsely pubescent and scaly. Fl. May–Jun.

Thickets; 2700–3500 m. SW Sichuan, Yunnan.