Rhododendron circinnatum Cowan & Kingdon-Ward ex Cowan

Shrubs or small trees, 7–8 m tall; branchlets torquate, 7–8 mm in diam.; young shoots densely pale yellow to gray-yellow tomentose. Petiole stout, 20–30 mm, densely grayish tomentose; leaf blade thickly leathery, elliptic-lanceolate to narrowly oblong, 10–14 × 3–4 cm; base obtuse or subrounded; apex obtuse or acute and apiculate; abaxial surface densely, continuously, yellowish brown woolly, hairs crispate-branched; adaxial surface glabrous except in midrib groove which retains vestiges of hairs; midrib and lateral veins prominent abaxially. Inflorescence umbellate, ca. 12-flowered; rachis ca. 10 mm. Pedicel ca. 2 cm, densely floccose and glandular; calyx ca. 1 mm, densely glandular and floccose, margin ciliate-glandular; corolla tubular-campanulate, 2.5–3 cm; lobes 5, ca. 1 × 1 cm; stamens 10, unequal, 1.5–2.5 cm, filaments pubescent at base; ovary ca. 1 × 4 mm, densely long-glandular-hairy and villous at base; style ± equal to corolla, glabrous; stigma discoid. Fl. Jun.

S Xizang.

Rhododendron thickets, mountains; 4300–4600 m.