Rhododendron weyrichii Maxim.

A deciduous azalea, described as often tree-like in habit in the wild, 3 to 15 ft high (Wilson); young shoots clothed with forward-pointing hairs, becoming brown and nearly glabrous the second year. Leaves obovate, ovate, or diamond-shaped, usually acutely pointed; distributed along vigorous shoots but often produced in a whorl at the end of shorter twigs, 11⁄2 to 31⁄2 in. long, 1 to 21⁄4 in. wide, pale green and soon glabrous above, greyer green and rather conspicuously veined beneath; stalk 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. long, downy only when young. Flowers produced two to four together in a terminal cluster. Calyx very small, hairy. Corolla about 2 in. wide, of a rather dull rich red, funnel-shaped at the base, with five spreading lobes. Stamens six to ten, usually glabrous. Ovary densely clothed with erect, pale, reddish hairs; style usually glabrous. Bot. Mag., t. 9475. (s. Azalea ss. Schlippenbachii)

Native of S. Japan, in Kyushu, Shikoku, and the Kinki district of the main island; also of the Korean island of Quelpaert; introduced by Wilson in 1914 to the Arnold Arboretum. Plants raised from seed obtained from that institution in 1915 flowered in May 1921 at Kew, where the species has proved fairly hardy in a sheltered place. It is most nearly akin to R. reticulatum, but is well marked by the colour of the flowers which may be termed rich brick-red and as distinct among azaleas as that of R. griersonianum is among rhododendrons proper.