裂毛杜鹃 lie mao du juan

Replaced synonym: Rhododendron mimetes Tagg & Forrest var. simulans Tagg & Forrest, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 15: 316. 1927; R. simulans (Tagg & Forrest) D. F. Chamberlain, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 39: 343. 1982, not R. simulans Sleumer, Reinwardtia 5: 168. 1960.

Shrubs, ca. 2 m tall; young shoots sparsely floccose or glabrescent. Petiole 15–20 mm, glabrous; leaf blade leathery, ovate-elliptic to ovate-oblong, 6.5–9.5 × 3–5 cm; base rounded or subcordate; apex acute, apiculate; abaxial surface with indumentum 2-layered, dense, upper layer thick, fawn, woolly-tomentose, ± splitting when mature, hairs branched, lower layer compacted; adaxial surface glabrous, sometimes with vestiges of hairs in grooved midrib. Inflorescence racemose-umbellate, 7–10-flowered; rachis 10–12 mm, glabrous. Pedicel 2–2.5 cm, sparsely tomentose; calyx lobes 5, 4–8 mm, narrowly oblong, margin ciliate; corolla funnelform-campanulate, white-pubescent, with crimson spots inside, 4–5 cm, lobes 5; stamens 10, filaments sparsely puberulent at base; ovary 7–8 × ca. 3 mm, densely brown branched-hairy, sometimes also glandular-hairy; style ca. 2.6 cm, glabrous; stigma capitate. Fl. Jun.

Rhododendron thickets; 3600–4000 m. SW Sichuan.

This entity is evidently a hybrid of Rhododendron sphaeroblastum.