Rhododendron anthosphaerum var. eritimum (I. B. Balfour & W. W. Smith) Davidian; R. anthosphaerum subsp. hylothreptum (I. B. Balfour & W. W. Smith) Tagg; R. chawchiense I. B. Balfour & Farrer; R. eritimum I. B. Balfour & W. W. Smith; R. eritimum subsp. chawchiense (I. B. Balfour & Farrer) Tagg; R. eritimum subsp. gymnogynum (I. B. Balfour & Forrest) Tagg; R. eritimum subsp. heptamerum (I. B. Balfour) Tagg; R. eritimum subsp. persicinum (Handel-Mazzetti) Tagg; R. gymnogynum I. B. Balfour & Forrest; R. heptamerum I. B. Balfour; R. hylothreptum I. B. Balfour & W. W. Smith; R. persicinum Handel-Mazzetti.

Shrubs or small trees, 2–7 m tall; young branches stout, glabrous. Leaf blade thinly leathery or leathery, elliptic-oblanceolate or long-elliptic, 8–14 × 2.5–3.5 cm; base cuneate; margin revolute; apex acuminate to acute, apiculate; abaxial surface pale, thinly clad with scattered hairs; midrib prominent; lateral veins 17–24-paired. Inflorescence racemose-umbellate, 8–10-flowered; rachis 5–10 mm, floccose. Pedicel 1–1.5 cm, sparsely rufous-tomentose or glabrescent; calyx cupular, lobes 6 or 7, ca. 1 mm; corolla tubular-campanulate, rose-magenta or crimson to magenta-blue, with a basal black-crimson blotch, 3–3.5 cm, nectar pouches present; lobes 6 or 7, suborbicular, ca. 1 × 1–1.5 cm, emarginate, crenate; stamens 13–14, unequal, 1.5–2.5 cm, filaments slender, glabrous or puberulent at base; ovary cylindric, ca. 5 × 2.5 mm, glabrous; style as long as corolla, glabrous, stigma small. Capsule 15–25 × 6–8 mm, glabrous, 7–8-lobed at apex when dry. Fl. Apr–May, fr. Jul–Aug.

Mixed Pinus-broad-leaved forests, open slopes; 2000–3500 m. SW Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [NE Myanmar].