Rhododendron hippophaeoides

Description with 20 photos. Photo: Finn Bertelsen. A  few feet tall, erect, evergreen  shrub, in the wild preferably in moist areas. Fully hardy. Young shoots scaly. Petiole scaly, to 5 mm. Leaf blade narrow elliptic, to 25 x 10 mm. Leaf apex obtuse, with tiny mucro. Leaf base acute, tapering. Leaf adaxial side blue grey greenish, densely scaly with contiguous, pale scales, 240 micrs. Leaf abaxial side pale green, with uniform, pale, partly overlapping scales, 240 micrs. Inflorescence with 3-8 flowers. Pedicel densely scaly, to 5 mm. Calyx with 5, rounded, densely scaly lobes, c. 2 mm. Corolla with 5 lobes, broadly funnel-shaped, pale bluish purple. Throat villose. Outside glabrous, without scales. Ovary conical, densely scaly, with inserted style. Stamens 10, unequal in length. Filaments villose towards base, light purple. Style purple red, glabrous, straight, with non-swollen stigma. Style and stamens not exserted from corolla.Capsule scaly, partly puberulent. Seeds without wings, with small floating appendages, 1.0-1.1 mm. Native habitat: Yunnan, SW Sichuan, China at 2400 – 4800 m according to Flora of China efloras org.