粉红爆杖花 fen hong bao zhang hua

Small shrubs, 0.3–1 m tall; young shoots densely gray-white-pubescent, mixed with spreading long hispid hairs. Leaf blade narrowly oblong or oblong-elliptic, 2.8–4 × 1–1.7 cm; abaxial surface pale green, sometimes gray-white-pubescent and yellowish brown-scaly along veins; adaxial surface deep green, sparsely hispid, sometimes pubescent; veins conspicuously raised abaxially. Calyx shallowly cup-shaped, without conspicuous lobes, densely scaly abaxially, pubescent; corolla tubular-campanulate, 5-lobed to below middle, base almost white, turning to peach or rosy red above, 1.4–1.8 cm, outer surface sparsely glandular scaly; lobes erect, slightly open, oblong; stamens not or only slightly exserted from corolla; filaments densely pubescent below, anthers purplish black; style exserted from corolla, longer than stamens; base densely pubescent. Fl. Feb–Apr.

Valley forests, coniferous forest margins; ca. 2200 m. Yunnan.

This entity is a hybrid between Rhododendron spiciferum and R. spinuliferum.