斑叶杜鹃 ban ye du juan

Dwarf shrubs, ca. 0.7 m tall; young shoots 3–4 mm in diam., sparsely shortly glandular-hairy and with vestiges of juvenile hairs. Petiole 10–12 mm, sparsely glandular-hairy; leaf blade leathery, oblong to ovate-oblong, 4.5–6.5 × 2–3 cm; base subrounded or nearly truncate; margin slightly revolute; ± undulate; apex acute or short-acuminate, cuspidate; abaxial surface sparsely and minutely white-pubescent, and purple-punctulate; adaxial surface slightly rugulose, glabrous; midrib prominent abaxially; lateral veins 12–13-paired, obscure. Inflorescence racemose-umbellate, 4–6-flowered; rachis ca. 10 mm. Pedicel 2–2.5 cm, sparsely shortly glandular-hairy and pubescent; calyx lobes 5, 4–6 mm, unequal, oblong or subrounded, mostly glabrous, margin glandular-ciliate; corolla campanulate, red with crimson blotch at base inside, 3–3.5 cm, lobes 5, emarginate; stamens 10, unequal, filaments pubescent at base; ovary conical, ca. 5 mm, densely short-glandular-hairy; style ca. 2.7 cm, glabrous, eglandular; stigma capitate. Fl. May.

Mixed forests on mountain slopes. W Yunnan.

This species was included within Rhododendron balfourianum in Fl. Yunnan. (4: 418. 1986), but differs from that species in having the leaf blade abaxially conspicuously punctate, in the red, smaller flowers, and in the glabrous style.