8. Rhododendron subg. Tsutsusi (Sweet) Pojarkova in Schischkin & Bobrov, Fl. URSS. 18: 55. 1952.
映山红亚属 ying shan hong ya shu
He Mingyou (何明友); David F. Chamberlain
Rhododendron sect. Tsutsusi Sweet, Brit. Fl. Gard., ser. 2, 2: t. 117. 1831.
Shrubs, sometimes dwarf, deciduous or with 2 types of leaves: deciduous summer leaves and persistent winter leaves; new foliage shoots from same terminal buds as flowers, enclosed within the same bud scales; young shoots not scaly, usually with red-brown, often strap-shaped hairs that may be spreading or appressed, gland-tipped, or setose to villous, rarely glabrous. Leaf blade not scaly, often coarsely appressed-hairy or pubescent. Inflorescence terminal, umbellate, 1- to many-flowered. Calyx usually small; corolla funnelform, rotate-campanulate, or funnelform-campanulate; tube conspicuous; lobes 5, white to rose, purple or red, often with flecks, glabrous, rarely glandular-hairy; stamens 5–10(–12), equal or unequal; ovary 5-locular, often pubescent or setose or glandular-hairy. Capsule ovoid, conical or conical-ovoid, coarsely appressed-hairy, villous or glabrescent.
About 115 species: E and SE Asia, mostly in China and Japan, extending south to Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines; 81 species (75 endemic) in China.
