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Rhododendron periclymenoides (Michx.) Shinners

Modern name

Rhododendron periclymenoides (Michx.) Shinners

Synonyms

Azalea nudiflora L., nom. illegit.; A. periclymenoides Michx.; R. nudiflorum (L.) Torr.

A deciduous azalea up to 9 ft high in its native state; young wood bristly Leaves mostly obovate, some oblong, tapering at both ends, 112 to 312 in. long, one-third to half as wide, green on both sides with a few scattered hairs above, bristly on the midrib beneath and on the margins. Flowers faintly scented, in clusters of six or more, the corolla-tube hairy, pink, 34 in. long; the five lobes paler, expanding, and giving the flower a diameter of 112 to 2 in.; stalk 13 to 12 in. long, bristly like the small calyx; stamens five, pinkish coloured, standing out well beyond the corolla; seed-vessels 34 in. long, bristly. Blossoms in May. (s. Azalea ss. Luteum)

Native of eastern N. America; introduced by Peter Collinson in 1734. It is one of the chief parents of the great race of garden azaleas, but is itself very rarely seen now. The flowers appear to be variable in colour, even in a wild state, although of some shade of red or pink, or purplish. Of the N. American azaleas, whose flowers expand before the leaves, this differs from R. calendulaceum in the longer-tubed, differently coloured corolla, and in the bristly midrib of the leaf, and from R. canescens in the hairy, not glandular, corolla-tube.


Genus

Rhododendron

Other species in the genus