Rhododendron mimetes Tagg & Forrest

Shrubs, 1–2 m tall; young shoots sparsely floccose. Petiole 10–15 mm, initially floccose, later glabrescent; leaf blade leathery, elliptic to oblong-ovate, 6–10 × 2.5–4 cm; base subrounded; apex shortly acuminate, apiculate; abaxial surface with indumentum 2-layered, upper layer loose, fulvous woolly-tomentose, floccose, ± detersile when mature, hairs multi-branched, lower layer whitish, compacted and persistent; adaxial surface glabrous. Inflorescence lax, racemose-umbellate, 6–10-flowered; rachis ca. 10 mm. Pedicel 1.8–2 cm, densely tomentose and shortly glandular-hairy; calyx lobes 5, 3–6 mm, unequal, ovate, sparsely tomentose and shortly glandular-hairy outside, margin glandular-ciliate; corolla broadly funnel-campanulate, white, faintly flushed pink, with few crimson spots inside, 4–4.5 × ca. 5 cm; lobes 5; stamens 10, unequal, filaments pubescent at base; ovary ca. 6 mm, densely brown-tomentose and short-glandular-hairy; style ca. 2.8 cm, glabrous, stigma slightly lobulate. Fl. Jun.

SW Sichuan.

Thickets, gullies, rocky mountain slopes; 3300–3600 m.