金厂杜鹃 jin chang du juan

Small trees, 2.5–5 m tall; bark gray; young shoots glabrous. Petiole 10–20 mm, glabrous; leaf blade subleathery, elliptic or narrowly elliptic, 11–16 × 3–5.4 cm; base cuneate; apex acuminate; both surfaces glabrous; abaxial surface pale green; adaxial surface green; midrib slightly raised, lateral veins 14–18, inconspicuous. Inflorescence racemose, 7–11-flowered; rachis 20–25 mm, glabrous. Pedicel 2.7–3.4 cm, glandular; calyx discoid, minute, glandular; corolla described as broadly funnelform (illustrated as broadly campanulate), rose-pink, 4.8–6 cm, lobes 7, suborbicular, ca. 1.8 × 2 cm; stamens 12–15, 2.5–3.5 cm, filaments glabrous; ovary ovoid, thick, ca. 7 mm, densely glandular-hairy; style ca. 4.2 cm, sparsely glandular; stigma discoid, ca. 4 mm in diam. Capsule not known. Fl. Apr.

1500–1700 m. S Yunnan.

This species is said to be allied to Rhododendron fortunei but to differ in the elliptic and subleathery leaves, the shorter (1–2 cm) petiole, the racemose inflorescence, and the broadly funnelform corolla. However, the plate accompanying the original description suggests that the corolla is broadly campanulate.