Rhododendron canadense

Description with 16 photos. Photo: Finn Bertelsen. A delicately built, upright, deciduous, c. 1m. Stoloniferous. Hardy. The new leaves appear during or after flowering. Young shoots and petiole puberulent. Petiole to 6 mm. Leaf blade elliptic to oblong, chartaceous, to 6 cm. Leaf apex acute to acute-obtuse, without mucro. Leaf base acute to cuneate. Leaf adaxial side dull bluish green, glabrous or strigose. Leaf abaxial side grey green, densely puberulent and strigose (midrib). Flower bud terminal, with puberulent and ciliolate scales. Inflorescence with 3-6 flowers. Pedicel with scarce glandualr hairs, to 6 mm. Calyx with 5 lobes, 1 mm. Lobes rounded with marginal glandular hairs. Corolla divided into an upper lip of 3 conglutinated petals and a lower lip of two divergent lower lobes, reddish purple. Ovary scattered glandular, with inserted style, with 5 loculi, 2 mm. Stamens 10, unequal in length. Filaments glabrous or slightly glandular at base, purple. Style glabrous, reflexed, purple red, with swollen, bullate stigma. Capsule stipitate glandular hairy, to 7 mm. Seeds with well-developed wings and floating appendages, 1.2-1.8 mm. Native habitat: Northeastern part of North America, at 0-1900 m according to Flora of North America efloras org.