Rhododendron floribundum Franch.

Shrubs or small trees, 2–10 m tall; branchlets stout, ca. 5 mm in diam., pubescent when young, glabrescent. Petiole cylindric, 10–15 mm; leaf blade leathery, elliptic-lanceolate or oblanceolate, 8–13 × 1.8–3.8 cm; base cuneate or rounded; apex acute; abaxial surface with indumentum 2-layered, upper layer loosely woolly, yellowish at first, becoming white or grayish, persistent, hairs stellate; lower layer appressed and pale gray-white; adaxial surface green, bullate, glabrous; midrib prominent abaxially, depressed adaxially; lateral veins 17–20-paired, prominent abaxially, depressed adaxially. Inflorescence 8–12-flowered; rachis 5–7 mm. Pedicel 1.5–2 cm, yellowish or whitish tomentose; calyx lobes 5, ca. 1.5 mm, narrowly triangular, acute, floccose; corolla broadly campanulate, at first magenta-rose, becoming paler pink, with crimson flecks and blotch at base within, 3.5–4 cm, lobes 5, orbicular, 1–1.5 × 1.5–2 cm, emarginate; stamens 10, unequal, 2–3.5 cm, filaments glabrous; ovary oblong, ca. 5 mm, silky-hairy; style 3.5–4 cm, longer than corolla, glabrous, stigma dilated. Capsule cylindric, 20–30 mm, yellowish, with gray pubescence. Fl. Apr–May, fr. Jul–Aug.

NW Guizhou, SW Sichuan, NE Yunnan.

Woodlands; 1400–2700 m.

Rhododendron floribundum (繁花杜鹃) is a rhododendron species native to northwestern Guizhou, southwestern Sichuan, and northeastern Yunnan in China, where it grows at altitudes of 1,400–2,700 m (4,600–8,900 ft). It is an evergreen shrub that grows to 2–10 m (6.6–32.8 ft) in height, with leathery leaves that are elliptic-lanceolate or oblanceolate, and 8–13 × 1.8–3.8 cm in size. The flowers are magenta-rose with crimson flecks and blotch at base.