Rhododendron mucronatum (Bl.) G. Don

Foodplant / sap sucker
Pealius azaleae sucks sap of live leaf of Rhododendron mucronatum
Other: major host/prey

This species was described from a cultivated plant that may represent an albino form of the Japanese Rhododendron mucronatum var. ripense (Makino) E. H. Wilson; the latter differs in having rose-pink flowers.

Shrubs, semievergreen, 1–2(–3) m tall; young shoots spreading; branches many, densely gray-brown villous, also with a few glandular hairs. Summer and winter leaves different. Petiole 2–4 mm, densely long-strigose, hairs flat, and shortly glandular-hairy; leaf blade papery, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 2–6 × 0.5–1.8 cm; base cuneate; apex obtuse to rounded. Inflorescence 1–3-flowered. Pedicel to 1.5 cm, densely yellowish brown-villous, also glandular-hairy; calyx lobes 5, lanceolate, ca. 12 mm, densely glandular-pubescent; corolla broadly funnelform, deeply 5-lobed, white, occasionally pale red, without purple flecks, 3–4.5 cm, lobes elliptic-ovate, as long as tube, glabrous; stamens 10, unequal, filaments puberulent below; ovary ovoid, ca. 4 × 2 mm, 5-locular, densely coarsely appressed-glandular-setose; style very long-exserted, glabrous. Capsule conical ovoid, ca. 10 mm. Fl. Apr–May, fr. Jun–Jul.

Cultivated in many places in E and S Sichuan and in many parks in China. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [of cultivated origin].

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Rhododendron mucronatum is a rhododendron species native to China, where it grows at altitudes of 2,800–4,500 m (9,200–14,800 ft). This evergreen shrub grows to 1–2 m (3.3–6.6 ft) in height, with leaves that are lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 2–6 by 0.5–1.8 cm in size. The flowers are white, pink, or pale red.