Short-fruit rosebay is a tough, slow-growing evergreen rhododendron from the mountains of Japan and Korea, with dense clusters of white to pale pink flowers in early summer. It is not native to the US, but rhododendron growers value it for surviving cold that many other rhododendrons can't. Like many rhododendrons, Short-fruit rosebay is poisonous.
Appearance
- Growth form
- Evergreen shrub, usually about 7–10 ft (2–3 m) tall in the wild. In gardens it grows slowly, reaching roughly 3 ft (1 m) in 10 years.
- Leaves
- Leathery, oblong leaves about 3–4.5 in (7–11 cm) long. The undersides may be smooth or carry a thin grayish to tan felt, depending on the subspecies.
- Flowers
- of 10–20 broadly funnel-shaped flowers about 1 in (2.5 cm) across, white to pale pink with greenish spots inside.
- Flowering time
- Blooms late in the rhododendron season, around June to July.
Look-alikes
Catawba rhododendron, native to the southern Appalachians, has violet-purple flowers and blooms earlier, from April through June. Short-fruit rosebay has white to pale pink flowers with green spots.
Why they get mixed upBoth are cold-hardy evergreen rhododendrons with big, rounded flower clusters.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Mountain forests
- Subalpine slopes
- Range
- Native to Japan, North Korea, and South Korea, growing up to about 8,200 ft (2,500 m). It does not grow wild in the US; you're most likely to see it in rhododendron collections and botanical gardens.
- Preferred conditions
- Grows mostly at subalpine elevations, though in Hokkaido it comes down almost to sea level.
Growing it
- Care
- Very cold hardy—roughly to -20°F (-29°C)—so it is valued in regions too cold for many other rhododendrons.
- Toxicity
- Contains , like many rhododendrons. In Japan, drinking tea made from its leaves has caused poisoning with a drop in blood pressure.
Name and classification
- Varieties and forms
- A double-flowered form (Nemoto-shakunage) is known from Japan.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- LCLeast ConcernLow risk of extinction
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