奇异杜鹃 qi yi du juan

Small shrubs, 1–2 m tall; young shoots densely whitish tomentose, later glabrescent. Petiole 15–20 mm, whitish tomentose; leaf blade leathery, oblong-elliptic, 5–11.5 × 2.5–5 cm; base broadly obtuse or rounded; apex obtuse or subrounded, ± beaked; abaxial surface indumentum loose, pale brown, hairs branched; adaxial surface slightly rugulose, glabrous. Inflorescence racemose-umbellate, 8–10-flowered; rachis ca. 10 mm. Pedicel 1.5–2 cm, densely tawny tomentose; calyx lobes 5, 1–2 mm, unequal, tomentose like pedicel; corolla obliquely campanulate, white, with dark crimson basal blotch and red spots spreading on upper lobes, ca. 4 cm, lobes 5; stamens 10, unequal, filaments pubescent at base; ovary cylindric, ca. 5 mm, densely brown appressed fasciculate-tomentose; style glabrous; stigma discoid.

W Sichuan.

This entity is not actually known in the wild. The type was raised from seeds collected in the wild in W Sichuan (Wilson 1353) and labeled Rhododendron wiltonii. It differs from that species in the oblong-elliptic leaf blade, which bears loose indumentum abaxially and is not obviously bullate-rugose adaxially, and the large, white corolla ca. 4 cm.