Rhododendron crassifolium Stapf

Shrub to 2.5 m, young stems smooth, inconspicuously covered in brown scales. Leaves 8–14 × 4–8 cm, ovate, obovate or oblong with a broad blunt to rounded apex, the margin smooth somewhat irregular, flat or slightly revolute, the base cordate, rounded or more rarely wedge-shaped. Upper surface when young silvery scaly, the scales turning brown before quickly falling off, the mature surface characteristically puckered, the midrib very large and conspicuous, very strongly raised, lateral veins 8–12 pairs hardly raised, spreading at a wide angle; underneath the midrib only slightly raised, lateral veins smooth, the scales small, well spaced, disc-shaped and irregularly lobed with small centres. Flowers 6–30 in each umbel, semi-erect to half-hanging; calyx a low ring; corolla mostly pink to red but rarely recorded as orange and white, funnel-shaped, sometimes with the lobe sides attractively reflexed, 2.3–3.5 × 4–5.2 cm, glabrous outside; stamens 10, conspicuously alternating long and short and regularly distributed around the mouth of the flower; ovary glabrous, style glabrous. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

Distribution  Brunei Indonesia Borneo Malaysia Borneo, Sabah, Sarawak

Habitat 1,200–2,200 m

RHS Hardiness Rating H2

Conservation status Least concern (LC)