Table 1. Diagnostic characters for Rhododendron pudingense and closely related species.

Characters	R. myrsinifolium	R. pudingense	R. minutiflorum
Leaf shape	elliptic, rarely obovate	obovate to obovate-elliptic	oblong to obovate or broadly ovate
Leaf length	6-8 × 3-5 mm	8-20 × 5-10 mm	8-15 × 3-5 mm
Leaf margin	red-brown punctate glands	no glands	no glands
Corolla tube length	4 mm long	8-11 mm long	3 mm long
Corolla tube surface	glabrous in both sides	outer surface glabrous whereas inner surface puberulent	outer surface reddish glandular-hairy and inner surface puberulent
Stamen length	12-14 mm	15-28 mm	7 mm long
Filament	glabrous	slightly puberulent below the middle of filament	puberulent at the lower part
Style length	12-15mm	20-28 mm	8 mm long
Style covers	coarsely appressed setose at the lower part	glabrous	Sparsely shortly glandular-hairy below