Rhododendron

[urbpan]

I have to accept that no Rhododendron species is going to make it to the 365 Urban Species project. If it was "365 Urban Genera" or "365 Urban Life Forms" or something, I could pull it off, but I just can't (won't) identify the shrub to species. I suspect that there is some kind of popular hybrid that is industrially cultivated--it's practically an obligatory front yard plant around here--but I haven't been able to figure it out. But I took a whole mess of pictures of it, and I'd hate for them to go to waste.



Today's blizzard rhododendron.





Content, spreading rhododendron, in warm wet weather.



In its familiar front yard habitat.



The same plant, on a much colder day: the leaves curl to prevent water loss to the cold dry air.



A particularly "urban" looking bush, also with cold curled leaves.



Feral rhody bush at the wildlife sanctuary.

One day, in front of a bunch of other naturalists (many of whom were also gardeners), I called an azalea a rhododendron, and was upbraided. I looked it up later and and found (as I suspected) that azaleas are a sub-group of rhododendrons. But I couldn't figure out what the distinction was. I just accidentally came across an explanation: rhododendrons are evergreen, azaleas are deciduous (lose all their leaves in the fall).

Comments

[grrlpup]

Also, rhodie flowers grow in clusters on the bush, but azalea blossoms are spread out all along the branches.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I think I've forgotten what plants look like when they have flowers on them (except for witch hazel).

Thanks for that--I'll try to remember it!

[momomom.livejournal.com]

Except for those azaleas which are evergreen:
http://www.azaleas.org/index.pl/aromievg.html.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Good lord.
Is the flower habit more diagnostic then? Or should I just give up on applying naturalist skills to horticultural products?

? ? ? ?

[momomom.livejournal.com]

I'm not a botonist, I just pretend to know something until someone asks me a hard question.

[drocera.livejournal.com]

I wish we would have gotten that snow here in Pennsylvania. I loves me a good blizzard!

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

You didn't? My friends in Pittsburgh certainly seem to have gotten it!

[drocera.livejournal.com]

Nope, only a dusting here, and I'm only 30 miles north of Pgh. Darn it! And we USUSALLY get more here, than PHG - lake effect and all that.

[seaweedgirle.livejournal.com]

Thanks for explaining why rhodos curl their leaves. It's always been a mystery to me!

[artemii.livejournal.com]

as someone already pointed out, only some azaleas are deciduous. most of the ones planted in american gardens are evergreen. a rough (and thus imprecise) guideline is that azaleas tend to be smaller and of a more classically-shrublike look than rhodies. their leaves, thus, tend to be much smaller, and usually curl much less noticeably (if at all) in cold weather.

i've often stated a belief that every non-gardener's landscape design in the boston area is predicated on planting the front yard (particularly shady ones, but even sunshine doesn't seem to stop many) with 1-2 rhodies and 2-4 japanese yews.

the catawba rhody is often found growing wild north of us:
http://gypsymoth.ento.vt.edu/vagm/Treeimages/rhododendron_purple.html

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Foolishly, I was considering doing one on yew, also. Now I'll have to teach myself to differentiate between American, English and Japanese yews, (and hybrids and cultivars) when they aren't flowering or fruiting. Or maybe I'll check the kitchen for some Penicillum mold.

[artemii.livejournal.com]

hahaha. well, for yews, almost all the ones in urban areas in the u.s. are japanese - so the chances of the yew you see in a city being a japanese one are very high, even if you can't personally tell between the three species.

have you read william cullina's books on native woody plants and native perennials? (the photo in this icon is of a native perennial - a white variant of dicentra eximia, which is commonly called "fringed bleeding heart" or "fern-leaved bleeding heart". i grew it in my shade garden at my last residence.)

[hhw]

You could have an appendix, "Problematic Plants" or whatever. The entry on Rhododendron is still informative for us city dwellers even if it's not on a specific species. I didn't know the explanation for the leaf curling in cold either. And knowing that they are such a mishmash of hybrids making identification challenging is interesting too.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this.
My solution was to make a public post of it, so that it's out there for everyone's benfit, but to not put a 365 tag on it so that it's not cluttering up my orderly system.
I'll definitely continue to post my "works in progress" and "problematic plants (and other taxa)" posts.
At some point I'll write a more general piece about plants, and why they are different from other life forms; but I think I'll try to learn some more first.

[ideath.livejournal.com]

I thought i'd remembered an anti-rhodie rant in the 365 project, but can't seem to find it. Anyway, i read this article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/28/rhododendron) about a Hebridean island battling rhododendrons and thought of your blog.