Rhododendron alabamense Rehd.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron alabamense' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-alabamense/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

Genus

Synonyms

  • Azalea nudiflora var. alba Mohr

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
corolla
The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
ovary
Lowest part of the carpel containing the ovules; later developing into the fruit.
acute
Sharply pointed.
apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
appressed
Lying flat against an object.
ciliate
Fringed with long hairs.
cuneate
Wedge-shaped.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
glandular
Bearing glands.
glaucous
Grey-blue often from superficial layer of wax (bloom).
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
variety
(var.) Taxonomic rank (varietas) grouping variants of a species with relatively minor differentiation in a few characters but occurring as recognisable populations. Often loosely used for rare minor variants more usefully ranked as forms.

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron alabamense' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-alabamense/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

Deciduous shrub or small tree, 3(–5) m; young twigs densely eglandular-hairy. Leaves 6.1–7.7(–9.4) × 1.9–2.4 cm, ovate or obovate to elliptic, lower surface eglandular-hairy. Flower bud scales with outer surface glabrous or with a few unicellular eglandular hairs, margin ciliate. Pedicels sparsely to densely covered with a mixture of eglandular and gland-tipped hairs. Flowers with a sweet delicate fragrance, appearing before or with the leaves, 6–12, in a shortened raceme; calyx 1–2(–10) mm; corolla white with a yellow blotch on upper lobe, funnelform, tube gradually expanding into limb, both surfaces covered in gland-tipped hairs, 25–47 mm. Capsules eglandular-hairy. Flowering April-May. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

Distribution  United States SE

Habitat s.l.-500 m

RHS Hardiness Rating H4

Conservation status Least concern (LC)

Taxonomic note This species is closely allied to R. canescens but may be distinguished by the flower colour. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

A deciduous shrub up to 5 ft high, sometimes dwarf and stoloniferous; young stems clad with pale appressed hairs, sometimes only sparsely so. Leaves obovate to elliptic or oblong-elliptic, 114 to 214 in. long, about half as wide, acute to slightly acute at the apex, cuneate at the base, slightly hairy above, densely so and usually glaucous beneath, margins ciliate. Flowers fragrant, borne with the unfolding leaves in May, in a terminal cluster of six to ten, on glabrous or sometimes hairy pedicels up to 38 in. long. Calyx very small, clad with bristly eglandular hairs. Corolla tubular-funnel-shaped, about 112 in. wide at the mouth, white, with or without a yellow blotch, tube slender, about 1 in. long, hairy and sometimes glandular outside, expanding gradually into the limb, lobes ovate or oblong-ovate. Stamens ten, about twice as long as the tube. Ovary densely appressed-hairy, glandular or eglandular. (s. Azalea ss. Luteum)

Native of the south-eastern USA; introduced to Britain in 1922. Mrs Norman Henry considered this to be one of the most enchanting of the American azaleas. ‘With its supremely beautiful velvety white flowers that appear, so abundantly, before the leaves that sometimes the stems are invisible, it is a fair sight indeed, and as for fragrance, it is utterly unlike any other Azalea with which I am familiar, the odour being full and mellow with much of the rich sweetness of some of the oriental Lilies’ (R.Y.B. 1946, p. 36).

R. alabamense was first described as late as 1901, and then as a variety of R. nudiflorum (now R. periclymenoides). But, among other characters, the pure white flowers distinguish it from that species and from R. prinophyllum and R. canescens. Despite its southern habitat, R. alabamense is perfectly hardy in Britain.

For natural hybrids between R. alabamense and R. canescens see: H. T. Skinner, ‘In Search of Native Azaleas’ (R.C.Y.B. 1957, pp. 11 and 15).