Rhododendron bellissimum D. F. Chamberlain

Small, erect shrubs, ca. 1.5 m tall; branchlets virgate, scaly. Petiole ca. 1 mm, scaly; leaf blade aromatic, elliptic-oblong or obovate-oblong, 0.8–1.2 × 0.3–0.4 cm; base broadly cuneate to rounded; apex rounded, mucronate; abaxial surface scales overlapping, arranged in 2–3 tiers, small, unequal, pale yellow-brown; adaxial surface pale green, scales pale, deciduous. Inflorescence 4–7-flowered. Pedicel ca. 0.1 cm, scaly; calyx lobes 2–3 mm, oblong, unequal, sparsely scaly, margin long-ciliate; corolla salver-shaped, rose, 5.5–7.5 cm, tube 3.5–4.5 mm, outer surface not scaly, sparsely puberulous; inner surface densely villous; lobes unequal, rounded, ca. 0.2 cm; stamens 5, included in corolla tube, filaments glabrous; ovary broadly ovoid ca. 2 mm, densely scaly; style ca. 1 mm, glabrous. Fl. May–Jun.

C Sichuan.

Meadows at forest margins; ca. 3400 m.

Replaced synonym: Rhododendron bellum H. P. Yang, Bull. Bot. Res., Harbin 9(1): 18. 1989, not R. bellum W. P. Fang & G. Z. Li, Bull. Bot. Res., Harbin 4(1): 3. 1984.