An evergreen shrub said to grow 9 ft high in the wild, with the stout young shoots woolly at first, becoming glabrous. Leaves with decurved margins, oblong inclined to ovate, pointed, tapered, or rounded at the base, 2 to 6 in. long, 3⁄4 to 13⁄4 in. wide, dark green, finely wrinkled, and at maturity glabrous above, covered beneath with a tawny, suede-like felt; stalk without glands, 1⁄2 to 11⁄4 in. long. Flowers opening in April and May in trusses of six to twelve, fragrant. Calyx-lobes five, oval, 3⁄16 to 3⁄8 in. long, very glandular; flower-stalk up to 11⁄4 in. long, glandular. Corolla white, tinged with pink or rose-magenta, spotted with crimson, bell-shaped, 11⁄2 to 21⁄2 in. long, 2 to 3 in. wide, the five lobes rounded. Stamens ten, 1⁄2 to 11⁄4 in. long, stalks white, downy at the base. Ovary glandular but not downy; style 11⁄3 in. long, very glandular towards the base. Bot. Mag., t. 9253. (s. Taliense ss. Adenogynum)
R. adenogynum was discovered by Forrest in 1906 in N. W. Yunnan, on the eastern flank of the Lichiang range, at altitudes of 11,000 to 12,000 ft and introduced by him four years later. As he originally found it, it was scattered in small clumps over grassy mountain slopes, and occurs in similar situations on the neighbouring Chungtien plateau and in bordering parts of S.W. Szechwan. Although one of the more decorative of the Taliense series, and flowering when quite young, it is rarely seen outside specialist collections. It is quite hardy.
R. adenophorum Balf. f. & W. W. Sm. – Closely allied to the preceding, but with the leaves slightly glandular above when young, and with small glands beneath concealed by the indumentum. The petiole, too, is glandular as well as tomentose. Introduced by Forrest in 1913 from N.W. Yunnan. Flowers similar to those of R. adenogynum, borne in April.