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Common Rhododendron (Rhododendron ponticum)

Description

“Pet poisonous” – Toxic parts: entire plant Rhododendron ponticum, called common rhododendron or pontic rhododendron, is a species of Rhododendron native to southern Europe and southwest Asia. R. ponticum is a dense, suckering shrub or small tree growing to 5 m (16 ft) tall, rarely 8 m (26 ft). The leaves are evergreen, 6 to 18 cm (2.4 to 7.1 in) long and 2 to 5 cm (0.79 to 1.97 in) wide. The flowers are 3.5 to 5 cm (1.4 to 2.0 in) in diameter, violet-purple, often with small greenish-yellow spots or streaks. The fruit is a dry capsule 1.5 to 2.5 cm (0.59 to 0.98 in) long, containing numerous small seeds. In Europe, its range includes Spain, northern Portugal, Great Britain, Ireland and southeast Bulgaria, which is the last surviving European Tertiary habitat. In Asia it occurs in Turkey, Lebanon, Georgia, the Krasnodar area of southern Russia, the Himalayas, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Northern Pakistan, and parts of Indian-administered Kashmir into the northern Republic of India (Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand). It is the state flower of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Though it had been present in Great Britain before the last Ice Age, it did not recolonise afterwards and the ecology of the island grew up without it. Its presence today is due to humans introducing it, and it easily naturalises and becomes a pest in some situations, often covering whole hillsides (especially in Snowdonia and the western British Isles). In the British Isles, it colonises moorlands, uplands, shady woodlands (alongside escaped laurels and the native holly) and in areas of acid soils, often in shaded areas. Fossil evidence shows it had a much wider range across most of southern and western Europe before the Late Glacial Maximum, or until about 20,000 years ago. It was noted by the botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort during his travels in the Near East in 1700–02, and so received its name from Linnaeus to identify the ancient kingdom on the south shores of the Black Sea, Pontus, in which it grew. At the other end of its range, in southern Spain, Linnaeus' friend and correspondent Clas Alströmer found it growing with oleander. It was introduced to Britain as an ornamental shrub in 1763, and later planted as cover for game birds. It is now considered to be an invasive species.

Taxonomic tree

  • Domain: Eukarya

    • Kingdom: Plantae

      • Phylum:

        • Class: Magnoliopsida

          • Order: Ericales

            • Family: Ericaceae

              • Genus: Rhododendron