毛柱杜鹃 mao zhu du juan

Shrubs, 2–3 m tall; shoots 3–5 mm in diam. below inflorescence; young shoots glandular-setose and whitish floccose, soon glabrescent. Petiole 10–15 mm, glandular-setose and stellate-tomentose; leaf blade leathery, elliptic-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 7–15 × 2–4 cm; base rounded; margin recurved; apex acuminate, apiculate; abaxial surface brownish, glabrous except for tomentose midrib, hairs folioliferous; adaxial surface green, glabrous; midrib conspicuously raised grooved; lateral veins 15–18-paired, slightly prominent abaxially. Inflorescence racemose-umbellate, 6–10-flowered; rachis 6–10 mm, fawn to rusty tomentose. Pedicel stout, 1–1.5 cm, stellate-tomentose and glandular-setulose; calyx lobes 5, small, broadly rounded, densely tomentose and glandular at base, margin glandular-ciliate; corolla tubular-campanulate, fleshy, crimson, 3.5–4 cm, with 5 black-crimson nectar-pouches at base; lobes 5, orbicular, 1.2–1.6 cm; stamens 10, unequal, 2–3 cm, filaments glabrous; ovary cylindric, ca. 6 mm, densely tomentose; style 2–2.5 cm, stellate-tomentose at base, stigma slightly swollen. Capsule slightly curved, 15–20 mm. Fl. Apr–May.

Forests, rocky valley slopes; 2400–2800 m. SE Xizang.

This distinctive species differs from the remaining members of this subsection in the indumentum, which is composed of folioliferous hairs, a feature that suggests a distant affinity with Rhododendron subsect. Maculifera. In the past it has been placed in the unispecific R. subsect. Venatora.