Shrubs 0.6–3 m tall; young shoots slender, densely floccose-tomentose and setulose-glandular. Petiole 8–12 mm, glabrous when mature; leaf blade leathery, narrowly elliptic to oblong or elliptic, 5–7.5(–12) × (1–)1.6–2 cm; base cuneate; margin revolute; apex acuminate, apiculate; abaxial surface epidermis glaucous-papillate, usually patchily and discontinuously rufous tomentose, hairs dendroid; adaxial surface green, glabrous when mature, midrib grooved adaxially; lateral veins 10–14-paired. Inflorescence umbellate, 4–7-flowered; rachis 2–3 mm, densely rufous-tomentose. Pedicel 1–1.2 cm, sparsely tomentose; calyx lobes 5, 1–4 mm, suborbicular, sparsely tomentose or glabrous, margin ciliate; corolla tubular-campanulate, crimson to scarlet, occasionally yellow or pink, ca. 3.5 cm, with 5 basal nectar pouches; lobes 5, suborbicular, ca. 1.2 × 1.5 cm, emarginate; stamens 10, 1.5–2.8 cm, filaments purple, glabrous; ovary conoid, tapering into style ca. 5.5 mm, densely stellate-tomentose; style glabrous; stigma capitate, small. Capsule cylindric, ca. 30 × 4 mm, rufous-tomentose. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Sep–Oct.

Rhododendron thickets, cliffs; 2300–4000 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan.