Rhododendron glischrum I. B. Balf & W. W. Smith

Shrubs or small trees, 2.4–7 m tall; older branches stout, grayish, glabrous, shoots ca. 8 mm in diam. below inflorescence; young shoots with glutinous glandular setae. Petiole stout, 18–25 mm, densely glandular-setose; leaf blade subleathery, oblong to broadly oblanceolate, 14–22 × 4.6–6.5 cm; base cuneate or narrowly rounded to subcordate; margin herbaceous, ciliate; apex obtuse or acute; abaxial surface smooth to rugose, setose, glandular-setose and tomentose; adaxial surface smooth to rugose, glabrous except for glandular-setose midrib near base, or setose; midrib raised abaxially, grooved adaxially; lateral veins 13–17 on each side. Inflorescence 10–12-flowered; rachis ca. 15 mm, densely glandular and tomentose. Pedicel 3–4.2 cm, glandular-setose; calyx lobes 5, ca. 1.3 cm, unequal, lingulate, densely glandular-setose, ciliate; corolla campanulate, pink, with purple flecks and basal blotch, 3.5–4 cm, lobes 5, emarginate; stamens 10, 1–3 cm, filaments pubescent at base; ovary conoid, ca. 5 mm, densely glandular-hairy; style 3–4 cm, glabrous or glandular at base. Capsule ca. 15 mm, base enclosed by persistent calyx. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Sep–Oct.

S Xizang, NW Yunnan [NE India, Myanmar].

Forests, forest margins, thickets; 2400–3600 m.