腾冲杜鹃 teng chong du juan

Rhododendron burriflorum I. B. Balfour & Forrest.

Shrubs, 1–5 m tall; older branches brownish and rough; shoots ca. 5 mm in diam. below inflorescence; young shoots with glandular and eglandular setae. Petiole 10–20 mm, glandular-setose; leaf blade subleathery, oblong-elliptic or broadly elliptic to obovate, 7–12 × 2.5–5 cm; base rounded; margin revolute; apex obtuse, cuspidate; both surfaces glabrous except for glandular-setose midrib and main veins, setae towards base; abaxial surface glaucous; adaxial surface green, glabrous when mature, midrib raised abaxially, grooved adaxially; lateral veins 12–14-paired. Inflorescence 10–20-flowered; rachis red, tomentose. Pedicel stout, 1.5–2 cm, persistently tomentose, not glandular; calyx red, large and one-sided, fleshy; lobes 5, 6–25 mm, unequal, rounded, ciliate; corolla funnel-campanulate, pale to deep crimson, with crimson spots and basal blotch; lobes 5, rounded, ca. 1.5 cm, emarginate; stamens 10, unequal, 2–3 cm, filaments pubescent at base; ovary conoid, ca. 6 mm, densely tomentose; style base densely tomentose. Capsule curved, ca. 25 × 4 mm.

Forests, thickets; 3000–3400 m. W Yunnan.

This entity is evidently a hybrid, probably between Rhododendron habrotrichum and a species in R. subsect. Neriiflora.