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Rhododendron camtschaticum Pall.

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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 camtschaticum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-camtschaticum/). Accessed 2025-04-25.

Family

  • Ericaceae

Genus

Synonyms

  • Therorhodion camtschaticum (Pall.) Small

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
inflorescence
Flower-bearing part of a plant; arrangement of flowers on the floral axis.
raceme
Unbranched inflorescence with flowers produced laterally usually with a pedicel. racemose In form of raceme.

Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Rhododendron camtschaticum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rhododendron/rhododendron-camtschaticum/). Accessed 2025-04-25.

Editorial Note

The text below combines Bean’s text (adapted to update the taxonomy) with the species entry from the Rhododendron Handbook (Royal Horticultural Society 1997).

Prostrate or low shrub, usually less than 0.2 m; bud scales persistent. Leaves 1–6 × 4–2.2 cm, obovate or spathulate, apex rounded, with a glandular apiculus, margin toothed and ciliate, lower surface pubescent on veins, otherwise glabrous. Flowers solitary or to 3, in a raceme, the peduncle bearing leafy bracts; calyx 8–18 mm, lobes oblong; corolla rose-purple (rarely white), with darker flecks, rotate, divided to the base on the lower side, 20–25 mm; stamens 10; ovary pubescent, style pubescent at base. Flowering May-June. Royal Horticultural Society (1997)

Bean (1976) describes the species thus: A deciduous shrub growing in low dense tufts 4 to 10 in. high, producing its flowers on stems up to 6 in. high. It spreads by means of underground suckers. Young shoots furnished with scattered bristles. Leaves stalkless, obovate, 3⁄4 to 2 in. long, 1⁄3 to 3⁄4 in. wide, thin in texture, glabrous above, slightly bristly beneath, and conspicuously so on the margin. Flowers solitary or in pairs (rarely in threes) on an erect, slender, glandular-bristly stem, the lateral flower or flowers produced on stalks 3⁄4 to 11⁄2 in. long; corolla 11⁄2 to 13⁄4 in. across, rosy crimson, with five open, spreading, oblong lobes, the three upper ones spotted. Calyx green, 1 in. across, the lobes narrowly oblong, bristly; stamens ten, very downy at the bottom. Bot. Mag., t. 8210.

Distribution  Japan N Russia E United States Aleutian Islands, Alaska

RHS Hardiness Rating H5

Conservation status Least concern (LC)

One of two species from N.E. Asia, the Aleutians and W. Alaska constituting Rhododendron subgen.Therorhodion, distinguished by the inflorescence, which is a raceme bearing in its lower part persistent, leafy, sterile bracts, the few flowers being confined to the apex of the raceme; the bracteoles on the pedicels, and the bracts subtending the flowers, are also persistent (inflorescences in the rest of Rhododendron are also basically racemose, but do not have persistent bracts below the flowers).

Native of Japan in Hokkaido (and of one locality in Honshu), thence north through Sakhalin and the Kuriles to the Aleutians and W. Alaska; also on the mainland of Russia from the Ussuri region to Kamchatka; introduced to Britain a few years before 1802. This remarkable and pretty species thrives and flowers well on the rock garden at Edinburgh, but is difficult to suit in southern England, where, for no obvious reason, it succeeds in one garden and fails in another. It needs a light, acid, humus-rich soil, but special mixtures are unlikely to help; it is unsuitable for gardens with poor air drainage, where the expanding flower-shoots may be killed by late frost. Beyond that, no useful advice can be given, except that it should not be coddled.

subsp. camtschaticum

Corolla lobes pubescent outside, margin ciliate; leaves of vegetative shoots without or with sparse glandular hairs.

Distribution Japan (N Honshu, Hokkaido), Russia (Kamtschatka, Kuriles), USA (Aleutian Islands, S Alaska).

subsp. glandulosum (Small) Hulten

Synonyms
R. glandulosum Small

Corolla lobes glabrous outside, margins not ciliate; Leaves of vegetative shoots glandular-hairy.

Distribution Russia (E Siberia), USA (W Alaska).

Taxonomic note (R. glandulosum Small)

This species is very distinctive on account of the leafy peduncles and the form of the corolla. Both subspecies are probably in cultivation.

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