Rhododendron brevinerve Chun & W. P. Fang

Small trees, 4–5 m tall; branchlets slender, usually 2–3 mm in diam.; young shoots glandular-setose. Petiole 10–25 mm, glabrous; leaf blade leathery or thinly leathery, 10–15 × 2–4.5 cm; base broadly cuneate or rounded; apex acuminate; both surfaces glabrous; midrib prominent abaxially, grooved adaxially; lateral veins 9–15-paired. Inflorescence a racemose umbel, 2–4-flowered; rachis ca. 5 mm, brownish pubescent. Pedicel stout, densely setose and glandular-hairy; calyx lobes 5, 2–3.5 mm, unequal, rounded, glandular-hairy outside, glabrous inside, margin gland-fringed; corolla broadly campanulate, purplish or pink, lacking flecks, 2.5–4 cm, lobes 5, ovate; apex obtuse or rounded, with one purple veinlet; stamens 10, unequal, 2–3.5 cm, filaments glabrous; ovary conoid, ca. 7 mm, 10-locular, densely glandular-hairy; style 2.5–3 cm, proximally glandular-hairy; stigma swollen. Capsule cylindric, 15–20 × 6–8 mm, glandular-setose; style persistent. Fl. Mar–May, fr. Jul–Sep.

N Guangdong, N Guangxi, SE Guizhou, SW Hunan.

Thickets, valleys; 800–1400 m.