石门杜鹃 shi men du juan

Shrubs, 3–6 m tall; young branches stout, blackish green; older branches grayish. Petiole robust, 10–16 mm, glabrous; leaf blade leathery, oblong-oblanceolate, 5–9 × 2–2.8 cm; base cuneate; apex acuminate; abaxial surface white or silvery floccose; adaxial surface glabrous; midrib impressed adaxially; lateral veins 12–15-paired, inconspicuous. Inflorescence racemose-umbellate, 3–5(–8)-flowered; rachis to 10 mm. Pedicel 2.5–3 cm, glandular; calyx lobes 5, ca. 2 mm, triangular, glandular; corolla campanulate, rose-pink, with purple spots on upper lobes, ca. 3.5 cm, lobes 5; stamens 10, unequal, 2–3 cm, filaments whitish puberulent at base; ovary oblong-ovoid, 5–6 mm, densely glandular-hairy; style ca. 3.5 cm, glabrous. Capsule cylindric, 11–12 mm, densely glandular-hairy. Fl. May–Jul.

1500–1600 m. N Hunan (Shimen).

The original authors considered that this species was allied to Rhododendron simiarum, but distinguished it by the eglandular, glabrous petioles, the shorter inflorescence rachis, and the densely stipitate-glandular ovary.