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Rhododendron canescens (Michx.) Sweet

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Peter Norris, enabling the use of The Rhododendron Handbook 1998

Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron canescens' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-canescens/). Accessed 2024-04-19.

Genus

Synonyms

  • Azalea canescens Michx.
  • Rhododendron bicolor Pursh

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

appressed
Lying flat against an object.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
glandular
Bearing glands.
midrib
midveinCentral and principal vein in a leaf.
ovary
Lowest part of the carpel containing the ovules; later developing into the fruit.

Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron canescens' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-canescens/). Accessed 2024-04-19.

Rhododendron canescens

Rhododendron canescens in the garden of the British Embassy, Washington DC, April 2009. Image John Grimshaw.

Deciduous shrub or small tree, to 6 m, young twigs sparsely to densely covered with eglandular multicellular hairs, occasionally some gland-tipped, rarely glabrous. Leaves (4.7–)5.9–8.5(–9.8) × (1.4)1.9–2.8(–3.6) cm, ovate or obovate, to elliptic, lower surface covered with a dense covering of eglandular hairs, rarely also with gland-tipped hairs. Flower bud scales with outer surface covered with unicellular hairs, margin unicellular-ciliate occasionally also with gland-tipped hairs. Flowers with a musky sweet fragrance, appearing with or before the leaves; calyx 1–4 mm; corolla pink, or the tube pale to deep pink and the lobes white to pale pink, funnelform, tube gradually expanding into the limb, outer surface covered with unicellular and gland-tipped multicellular hairs, 20–45 mm. Capsules eglandular-hairy. Flowering March-May. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

Distribution  United States SE

Habitat s.l.-500 m

RHS Hardiness Rating H6

Conservation status Least concern (LC)

Taxonomic note (incl. R. roseum [Lois.] Rehder) Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

A deciduous shrub up to 10 or 15 ft high, closely allied to R. periclymenoides and joined to it by intermediates. It differs chiefly in the densely downy winter-buds and young branchlets, the corollas glandular as well as hairy outside, and the soft, appressed hairs on the ovary (in R. periclymenoides they tend to be bristly). The leaves are usually grey-downy beneath, especially on the midrib and veins, and it is then distinguishable from R. periclymenoides by that character alone; f. subglabrum Rehd., however, has the leaves almost glabrous beneath, but does not otherwise differ from typical R. canescens and should not be confused with R. periclymenoides.

Native of the eastern USA, mainly in the coastal plains of the south-east but reaching as far north as N. Carolina and west to Tennessee. According to Loudon it was introduced in 1810, but has been much confused with R. periclymenoides.

Rhododendron canescens

Rhododendron canescens in the garden of the British Embassy, Washington DC, April 2009.

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