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Taxonomy:
Kingdom:
Plantea
Class:
Eudicotyledon
Order:
Ericales
Family:
Ericaceae
This family is the heath family of flowering plants comprising 126 genera and
more than 4000 species, which can be either evergreen or deciduous.
Genus:
Rhododendron
This genus has over 1000 species. This web site will endeavors to
capture the beauty of the creation in photographs and share them on
the following pages one species at a time.
Sub-genus:
Azaleastrum
Includes 3 sections, 86 species
Type Species:
R. ovatum
Common Name:
Azalea
Sub-genus
Choniastrum
Species:
R. championae
R. hancockii
R. latoucheae
R. moulmainense
R. stamineum
et al.
Sub-genus
Hymenanthes
Sub-genus section:
Ponticum
Includes 37 species
Type Species:
R. ponticum
Sub-genus section:
Pentanthera
Type Species:
R. molle
Sub-genus
Rhododendron
Includes 3 sections, about 400 species
Type Species:
R. ferrugineum L.
Common Name:
Rododendrum
Sub-genus
Therohodion
Species:
R. camtschaticum
R. redowskianum
Common Name:
Rododendrum
Rhododendron is the largest genus in the Ericaceae family with over 1000 species of woody plants in the heath family. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan region, but smaller numbers occur elsewhere in Asia, and in North America, Europe and Australia.
The Rhododendron is the national flower of Nepal, the state flower of Washington and West Virginia in the United States, the state flower of Nagaland and Himachal Pradesh in India, the provincial flower of Jiangxi in China and the state tree of Sikkim and Uttarakhand in India. Most species have brightly colored flowers which bloom from late winter through to early summer
Azaleas make up two sub-genera of the genus Rhododendron
The Name:
The common and generic name Rhododendron comes from the Ancient Greek words: rhodon meaning rose and dendron meaning tree.
Description:
Rhododendron is a genus of shrubs and small trees, which can be either evergreen or deciduous. In some species, the undersides of the leaves are covered with scales known as lepidote or hairs known as indumentum. Some of the best known species are noted for their many clusters of large flowers.
A recently discovered species in New Guinea has flowers up to six inches in width, which is the largest flower in the whole genus. There are alpine species with small flowers and small leaves, and tropical species such as section Vireya that often grow as epiphytes. Species in this genus may be part of the heath complex in oak-heath forests in eastern North America.
Range:
Species of the genus Rhododendron are widely distributed between latitudes 80°N and 20°S and are native to areas from North America to Europe, Russia, and Asia, and from Greenland to Queensland, Australia and the Solomon Islands.
The wise men of this world believe the plant′s origin is in the Himalayas and Maritime Southeast Asia, with the greatest species diversity in the Sino-Himalayan region, Southwest China and northern Burma, from India – Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Nagaland to Nepal, northwestern Yunnan and western Sichuan and southeastern Tibet.
However, as a Christian, my belief is that the Rhodedendron originated on the third day of creation when God said at Genesis 1:11, And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
Also, in the United States, native Rhododendron mostly occur in lowland and montane forests in the Pacific Northwest, California, the Northeast, and the Appalachian Mountains.
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