Rhododendron brevipetiolatum M. Y. Fang

Shrubs, ca. 3 m tall; branches more than one year old grayish, glabrescent; shoots stout, ca. 5 mm in diam., branchlets of current year purplish or brownish, puberulent and glandular. Petiole stout, ca. 10 mm; leaf blade leathery, oblong or oblong-elliptic, 8–12 × 3–5 cm; base broadly cuneate or rounded; apex blunt or cuspidate; abaxial surface brownish, indumentum compact, thin, veins with thin indumentum; adaxial surface greenish, glabrous; midrib slightly raised abaxially, impressed adaxially; lateral veins 16–19-paired, slightly raised abaxially, impressed adaxially. Inflorescence usually 5–7-flowered; rachis 5–7 mm, densely gray tomentose. Pedicel stout, ca. 1 cm, whitish floccose and glandular-hairy; calyx lobes 5, 2–3 mm, ovate, puberulent outside; corolla campanulate, deep crimson, 4–4.5 cm, with 5 dark purple nectar pouches at base; lobes 5, orbicular, ca. 1.3 × 2–2.5 cm, emarginate; stamens 10, unequal, 2.5–3.5 cm; filaments slender, glabrous; ovary conical, 6–7 mm, with long-glandular hairs, also pubescent; style 3–3.5 cm, glabrous, stigma dilated. Capsule not known. Fl. Apr.

C Sichuan (Yingjin).

Forests; ca. 1900 m.