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New article for Trees and Shrubs Online.
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'Rhododendron shweliense' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Compact shrub, 0.3–0.8 m; shoots with a flaking brownish bark. Leaves 3.2–4 × c. 1.5 cm, narrowly elliptic to narrowly obovate, apex rounded, mucronate, lower surface with a glaucous papillate epidermis, scales 3–4× their own diameter apart, unequal, the smaller pale yellow, the larger brown. Pedicels scaly Flowers yellowish flushed pink, campanulate, outer surface lacking scales, 11 mm; stamens regular; ovary scaly, style sharply deflexed, puberulent over its whole length. Flowering April-June. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)
Distribution China SW Yunnan
Habitat 3,050–3,350 m
RHS Hardiness Rating H5
Conservation status Vulnerable (VU)
Most cultivated plants referred to this species are forms of R. glaucophyllum or hybrids of it. Its status in cultivation therefore remains doubtful. This species closely resembles R. charitopes but differs in the narrower leaves and puberulent style. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)