An evergreen shrub up to 12 ft or sometimes more high; branches stout and erect. Leaves elliptic to oblong, inclining to obovate, 3 to 6 in. long, 11⁄4 to 3 in. wide, tapering at the base, dark green above, paler beneath, quite glabrous on both surfaces; stalk 1⁄2 to 1 in. long. Flowers produced during May, twenty or more in a terminal truss; rachis about 1 in. long; pedicels 11⁄2 to 2 in. long, glabrous or slightly downy. Calyx small, with five, short, broad lobes. Corolla bell-shaped, with five waxy lobes, 2 to 21⁄2 in. across, rich rosy purple to pink or sometimes white, with brown spots on the upper lobes. Stamens ten, shorter than the corolla, downy at the base. Ovary covered with white, appressed hairs; style glabrous. Bot. Mag., t. 4863. (s. and ss. Ponticum)
Native of California northwards to British Columbia; introduced by W. Lobb in 1850, but now rare in gardens. It may be considered as the western form of R. catawbiense, differing in its more erect growth, in having the leaves tapered at the base, in the more rosy tinted flowers, and the often glabrous flower-stalks. The calyx-lobes in R. catawbiense are also longer, more pointed and triangular. It is quite hardy.