腋花杜鹃 ye hua du juan

Rhododendron crenatum H. Léveillé; R. motsouense H. Léveillé ["motsonense"].

Small, much-branched shrubs, 0.15–2 m tall; young branches short and slender, brown glandular scaly, otherwise glabrous or somewhat velutinous. Petiole short, 2–4 mm, scaly; leaf blade fragrant, oblong to elliptic, 1.5–4 × 0.8–1.8 cm; base cuneate or rounded; margin revolute; apex obtuse or acuminate, apiculate or not; abaxial surface usually gray-white, scales less than 1 × their own diameter apart, not contiguous, medium sized, brown; adaxial surface densely brown scaly. Inflorescence axillary or subterminal, 2- or 3-flowered; bud scales many, imbricate, persistent until flowering time. Pedicel slender, 0.5–1 cm, densely scaly; calyx discoid, slightly serrulate, minute, scaly; corolla widely funnelform, divided from below or at middle, pink or purple, 0.9–1.4 cm, outer surface sparsely scaly, lobes spreading; stamens 10, exserted, filaments pilose at base; ovary 5-locular, densely scaly; style longer than stamens, glabrous or shortly pilose at base. Capsule cylindric, 5–10 mm, scaly. Fl. Mar–May.

Pinus or Quercus forests, Abies forest margins, grasslands, usually dominant; 1500–3500(–3800) m. NW Guizhou, SW Sichuan, Yunnan.

Rhododendron ×fittianum I. B. Balfour (Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 10: 108. 1917), described from Yunnan, was considered to be an obscure hybrid of R. racemosum by Cullen (Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 39: 113–114. 1980).