金平毛柱杜鹃 jin ping mao zhu du juan

Trees; shoots ca. 3.5 mm in diam. below inflorescence; young shoots sparsely glandular. Petiole cylindric, 10–12 mm, pubescent and glandular; leaf blade subleathery, oblong-elliptic to oblanceolate, 8.5–8.8 × 2.5–3.2 cm; base cuneate or rounded; margin revolute; apex acuminate, caudate; abaxial surface pale green, glabrescent, with sparse red verruculose spots, midrib tomentose near base; adaxial surface green, glabrous; midrib raised abaxially, narrow and grooved adaxially; lateral veins ca. 15-paired. Inflorescence 4- or 5-flowered; rachis ca. 6 mm, pubescent. Pedicel 1–1.5 cm, densely brown-pubescent and shortly glandular-hairy; calyx lobes 5, ca. 2 mm; outer surface pubescent; corolla funnelform, ca. 4.2 cm, with 5 basal nectar pouches; lobes 5, suborbicular, ca. 1.5 cm; stamens 10, unequal, 2–3.3 cm, filaments red, glabrous; ovary elliptic, narrow, ca. 7 × 3 mm, densely woolly-tomentose; style red, densely glandular-hairy above, brown-woolly-tomentose below; stigma small. Capsule not known. Fl. Mar.

Evergreen forests; ca. 2500 m. SE Yunnan.

Judging from the original description, this species probably belongs to Rhododendron subsect. Irrorata. The red verruculose spots on the abaxial surface of the leaves may well equate to the punctate glands that occur in several members of that subsection but do not occur in any of the species in R. subsect. Maculifera.