Rhododendrons

Rhododendron wardii
var. wardii
Campylocarpa subsection
H4-5
Height: 1 to 8m, a compact to open shrub or small tree.
Flowers: 5-14 flowered, fairly flat to loose, widely campanulate to saucer-shaped, 20-40mm long, yellow in various shades or white, with or without a crimson blotch, buds sometimes orange-red.
May-June.
Leaves: 30-120 x 20 - 60mm, more or less orbicular to ovate, oblong-elliptic or oblong; upper and lower surface glabrous, new growth often glaucous, lower surface pale green or glaucous.
Introduced: 1913, reintroduced 1980's.
Distribution: SE Tibet, NW Yunnan, SW Sichuan. 2,700 - 4,300m.
R. wardii is in many ways the best of the medium-sized yellow-flowered species.