''Rhododendron cinnabarinum'' (朱砂杜鹃) is a

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; : ''rhododendra'') is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the Ericaceae, heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

native to eastern

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...

, southeastern

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

, and

southwest China Southwestern China () is a region in the People's Republic of China. It consists of five provincial administrative regions, namely Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Xizang. Geography Southwestern China is a rugged and mountainous region, ...

, where it grows at altitudes of . It is a straggling

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

shrub that grows to in height, with leathery leaves that are broadly

elliptic In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. It generalizes a circle, which is the special type of ellipse in ...

, oblong-elliptic to oblong-lanceolate or ovate, 3–6 by 1.5–2.5 cm in size. The flowers are yellow to

cinnabar Cinnabar (; ), or cinnabarite (), also known as ''mercurblende'' is the bright scarlet to brick-red form of Mercury sulfide, mercury(II) sulfide (HgS). It is the most common source ore for refining mercury (element), elemental mercury and is t ...

red, sometimes ranging to plum colors.

References

* "''Rhododendron cinnabarinum''", J. D. Hooker, ''Rhododendr. Sikkim-Himalaya''. 1: t. 8. 1849.

Gallery

Rhododendron cinnabarinum green leaves.jpg, Close-up of leaves Rhododendron_cinnabarinum.jpg, Illustration Rhododendron cinnabarinum flowers.jpg, Rhododendron cinnabarinum flowers Rhododendron cinnabarinum - University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden - DSC07597.JPG, Shrub conformation cinnabarinum Plants described in 1849 Taxa named by Joseph Dalton Hooker Flora of Nepal Flora of East Himalaya Flora of Tibet Flora of China {{Ericaceae-stub