Great Rhododendron (Trees and Shrubs of South Mountain Reservation)

Great Rhododendron

Rhododendron maximum

Summary ⁶

Rhododendron maximum — its common names include great laurel, great rhododendron, rosebay rhododendron, American rhododendron and big rhododendron — is a species of Rhododendron native to the Appalachians of eastern North America, from Alabama north to coastal Nova Scotia.

Rhododendron maximum is an evergreen shrub growing to 13 ft, rarely to 30 ft tall. The leaves are 3.5–7.5 in long and 0.8–1.6 in broad. The flowers are 1 - 1.2 in diameter, white, pink or pale purple, often with small greenish-yellow spots. The fruit is a dry capsule 0.6 - 0.8 in long, containing numerous small seeds. The leaves can be poisonous. Leaves are sclerophyllous, simple, alternate, and oblong 2 -3 in wide. It retains its waxy, deep-green leaves for up to 8 years, but once shed are slow to decompose. It produces large, showy, white to purple flowers each June and July.

Approximately 12,000 square miles in the southern Appalachians are occupied by this species where it dominates the understory. It occurs occasionally on mesic hill-slopes throughout the upper Piedmont Crescent of the Southeastern United States Much of the Great Rhododendron found here was planted when the Reservation was first created.

Sources and Credits

(c) annwf7, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by annwf7, http://www.flickr.com/photos/23557170@N04/9250641081/
(c) Lori A Owenby, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Lori A Owenby
(c) Aidan, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Aidan
(c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Douglas Goldman
(c) Jonathan (JC) Carpenter, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Jonathan (JC) Carpenter
Adapted by Tom Pollard from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhododendron_maximum

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