Rhododendron pulchrum Seeds | Handsome Rhododendron
LATIN NAME: Rhododendron pulchrum
COMMON NAME: Handsome Rhododendron
Plant Profile
Handsome rhododendron is a compact evergreen shrub from the hills of southeastern China, where it grows on acid slopes among grasses and low bamboos. It reaches one to two metres, with a dense, rounded habit, oval leaves covered in fine bristles and wide, funnel-shaped flowers in rich rose-purple, spotted darker in the throat, opening in tight trusses through late spring. The flowers are large for the size of the plant, and a bush in full bloom is almost entirely colour. It is one of the parents of the florist azaleas, and its influence is visible in the compact habit and the heavy flowering of garden azaleas everywhere. In the wild it is a plant of open pine and oak woodland, where the soil is thin, acid and full of leaf litter.
Science & Biotechnology
Rhododendron pulchrum has a complicated taxonomic history: it is probably of hybrid origin, with Rhododendron simsii and Rhododendron mucronatum in its background, and some botanists treat it as a cultivated form rather than a wild species. That history shows in its genetics, which are more variable than those of a true species, and in its intermediate characters, which is why identification keys often struggle with it. The genus as a whole is famous for its toxic diterpenoids, the grayanotoxins, which bind to sodium channels and cause the cardiac and neurological symptoms of honey intoxication. The nectar is as toxic as the leaves, and honey from rhododendron-dominated floras, known as mad honey, has caused mass poisonings for two thousand years. The plant’s own pollinators, bumblebees, are unaffected by doses that would hospitalise a person.
Uses & Benefits
The shrub is grown purely for ornament, and it is one of the best azaleas for a small garden: compact, free-flowering and tolerant of harder conditions than most. It is used in low hedges, in woodland planting and in large containers of ericaceous compost. The flowers are sterile and drop cleanly, so the plant does not seed about. In Chinese gardens it has been cultivated for centuries, and it appears in paintings of the Jiangnan school as a symbol of spring. It has no culinary or medicinal use, and all parts are toxic. The dense evergreen growth gives cover for small birds, and the flowers are a heavy source of nectar for bumblebees in a season when little else is open.
Growing from Seed
Sow the fine seed on the surface of a peaty, acid mix of sieved sphagnum, perlite and sand, and do not cover it, because light is needed. Water from below with rain water and keep at eighteen to twenty-one degrees in bright, indirect light. Germination takes three to six weeks. The seedlings are minute and slow, and they should stay in a humid propagator for their first months. Prick out into ericaceous compost, grow on in cool, bright conditions, and plant out once the root ball holds together. Choose a spot in half shade with acid, humus-rich soil, mulch with pine needles, and never let the roots dry out.
Our Take
A compact azalea with flowers out of proportion to its size, and a toxin in every part. Plant it for spring colour in acid soil.
Related Reading
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