Rhododendron caeruleoglaucum I. B. Balfour & Forrest; R. campylogynum var. celsum Davidian; R. campylogynum var. cremastum (I. B. Balfour & Forrest) Davidian; R. campylogynum var. myrtilloides (I. B. Balfour & Kingdon Ward) Davidian; R. cremastum I. B. Balfour & Forrest; R. damascenum I. B. Balfour & Forrest; R. glaucoaureum I. B. Balfour & Forrest; R. myrtilloides I. B. Balfour & Kingdon Ward.

Small shrubs, usually prostrate, creeping or decumbent, evergreen, 0.025–0.1(–1.8) m tall; branchlets short, sparsely scaly, otherwise glabrous or pubescent. Petiole 2–4 mm, scaly; leaf blade leathery, obovate to obovate-lanceolate, 0.7–2.5(–3) × 0.3–1.2(–1.8) cm; base tapering; margin crenulate; apex rounded, mucronate; abaxial surface often whitish or silvery, scales 1–6 × their own diameter apart, small, deciduous; adaxial surface dark green, usually shiny, scales rarely present. Inflorescence umbellate, 1–4(–5)-flowered. Pedicel ca. 5 cm, erect, up to 7 cm in fruit; calyx lobes 1–6 mm, rounded to ovate-oblong, persistent, scales usually absent; corolla broadly campanulate, fleshy, pruinose, pink to purple, 1–2(–2.3) cm; tube 7–12 mm, glabrous, inner surface sparsely pubescent; stamens (8–)10, shorter than corolla, filaments puberulous in lower 1/2 their length; ovary scaly; style thick, bent or sharply deflexed, glabrous. Capsule ovoid, 5–9 mm, scaly.

Rhododendron thicket margins, scrub, moist stony moorlands, cliffs, ledges; (2700–)3500–4500(–5100) m. S Xizang, C and W Yunnan [NE India, NE Myanmar].