Rhododendron wasonii Hemsl. & Wils.

A sturdy evergreen shrub 2 to 5 ft high; young shoots thick, stiff, greyish white at first. Leaves narrowly oval or ovate, pointed, mostly rounded at the base, 2 to 3 in. long, 1 to 11⁄2 in. wide, of hard leathery texture, ultimately glabrous and dark green above, clothed beneath with a close, rusty-brown down which becomes very dark on the two-year-old leaves; stalk 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. long. Flowers produced in March and April in a terminal truss of six to ten. Corolla bell-shaped, 11⁄4 to 2 in. wide, creamy white or lemon-yellow, sometimes shaded with rose, or wholly rose-coloured, always spotted with crimson; five-lobed, the lobes overlapping. Calyx very small; flower-stalk 1⁄2 to 1 in. long, both white with down. Stamens ten, about 1⁄2 in. long, downy at the base; anthers dark brown; ovary clothed with white down; style as long as the corolla, glabrous, pale yellow. Bot. Mag., t. 9190. (s. Taliense ss. Wasonii)

Native of W. Szechwan, China; discovered and introduced in 1904 by Wilson, who observed that it is ‘a common-low-growing species partial to rocks in forests’. It is a hardy, slow-growing species, with handsome foliage, with flowers, in the best form, of a clear, pale yellow, blotched at the base.