Korean Azalea
Rhododendron yedoense f. poukhanense · Ericaceae · 산철쭉
How to spot it
Semi-evergreen: evergreen in warm areas and deciduous in cold areas, and the leaves turn orange-red in autumn.
Look
- Leaves
- Narrowly long-elliptic or broadly lanceolate, 3 to 8 cm long, with no teeth on the margin and dense brown hairs on the veins underneath.
- Flowers
- In April to May, flowers open 2 to 3 together at the tips of branches. The funnel-shaped corolla is pale reddish purple, 5 to 6 cm across, with deep crimson spots inside the upper petal. The flower stalk and calyx are sticky.
- Fruit
- Egg-shaped capsules 8 to 10 mm long, with long hairs on the surface, mature in September.
- Bark
- Grayish-yellow-brown bark; one-year-old twigs are covered with white hairs that fall off the next year.
Where it grows
- In Korea
- Native (Korean Peninsula)
- Native to
- Also found in Japan; in Korea it grows below 1,600 m elevation across the country except Hamgyeong-do.
- Ecology
- Semi-shade tolerant but grows well in full sun if soil moisture is sufficient. Strongly cold-hardy, salt tolerant and pollution tolerant, and sprouts vigorously. It dries up and dies if the soil is dry.