Rhododendron rhuyuenense Chun ex Tam

This species was described (in Chinese) and illustrated under the name “Rhododendron lingii Chun” (Ching, Iconogr. Cormophyt. Sin. 3: 151, t. 4256. 1974), which was not validly published.

Shrubs, to 3 m tall; shoots with long bristles and short glandular hairs. Summer and winter leaves different. Petiole 4–10 mm, densely long-setose and shortly glandular-hairy; leaf blade leathery, elliptic-lanceolate, long-lanceolate or broadly ovate, 2.5–6.5 × 1.5–3(–4.5) cm; base subrounded and slightly asymmetrical; margin revolute, long-setose, rarely shortly glandular-hairy; apex acuminate and mucronate; abaxial surface sparsely setose, setae may be reduced to swollen hair bases; adaxial surface subglabrous except for persistent setae along midrib, lateral veins not reaching the margin. Inflorescence ca. 12-flowered. Pedicel 0.8–1 cm, densely long brown-setose and shortly glandular-hairy; calyx lobes shallowly divided, ovate or triangular-ovate, small, densely coarsely long-strigose; corolla rotate-campanulate, pink or pink-purplish blue, the upper lobes with red flecks, ca. 1 cm; tube short, ca. 5 × 4 mm, outer surface glandular-hairy, inner surface puberulent; lobes spreading, ovate, as long as corolla tube; stamens 5, unequal, 1.5–1.8 cm, long-exserted, filaments puberulent at base; ovary ovoid, brown-setose and glandular-hairy; style ca. 1.2 cm, shorter than stamens, long red-brown-setose and glandular-hairy. Capsule ovoid, 5–6 × ca. 4 mm, long dark-setose. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Jul–Nov.

N Guangdong, S Hunan, E Jiangxi.

Open forests and thickets; 1500 m.