My intern recently mentioned that there appear to be a lot of observations of a non-native rhododendron on iNaturalist, and she was right! There are more than 1,100 observations of R. ponticum in the eastern US . I can’t find any mention of this species naturalizing in the US (not included in EDDMapS…

I have spent quite a few hours over the last two days trying to clean up Rhododendrons in my area and noticed that most of these R. ponticum IDs in the eastern US are just plain wrong. Lots of azaleas, some native rhododendrons, a few mountain laurels, even stuff like roses, magnolias, spiraea and m…

[image] annkatrinrose: If anyone knows more about this or has a key to offer that includes both the American species and R. ponticum, that would be great and very appreciated. My best suggestion is The American Rhododendron Society

Thanks, yes, I checked their website and found some good info on parentage for specific named hybrids etc. But it is very much geared towards garden enthusiasts looking to collect them all instead of identification of species, so no key that I could find. Weakley’s Flora of the Southeastern United S…

I’m finding a good number of GBIF records for this that shouldn’t be for two reasons: obviously cultivated garden plants, and obviously misidentified. The record holder so far is an observation in Minnesota (well outside the hardiness zone range for this species) with 5 confirming IDs following t…

[image] eraskin: Perhaps these are widely planted and often observed in gardens? Just a follow-up on this: I tried again, pretending to be a gardener/rhododendron collector, to find this species for sale for garden use in the US. The only nursery I’ve come up with that offers it is located in…

Well, there’s no appropriate CV suggestion available for all the cultivated hybrids - I’m not sure yet the Rhododendron x hybridum label applies and even if it does it is not included in CV at all, not even listed as pending. So consequently, it looks for similar species instead. Since the vast majo…

[image] annkatrinrose: no appropriate CV suggestion available for all the cultivated hybrids Of course there is - genus Rhododendron.

Well, that’s the appropriate ID but it seems a lot of the casual users wanting to know what grows in their gardens go with the top species suggestion. Here’s an example what iNat suggests on one of these planted rhodo hybrids in my area: [RhodoCV] There shouldn’t be any ponticum or indicum - at l…

Just another fun example… Clearly wild, clearly R. maximum, slam-dunk ID for anyone with just a little bit of local plant knowledge so that should really be the only suggestion here. Yet, the top CV suggestion is R. ponticum. I’m not sure where it’s pulling the ‘nearby’ avocado and photinia suggesti…

Rhododendron ponticum in the US?

Nature Talk

annemirdl December 13, 2022, 7:12am 12

For some reasons the CV loves to identify sometimes cultivated rhododendrons in the US as alpine roses (Rhododendron ferrugineum and Rhododendron hirsutum).

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Rhododendron ponticum in the US?

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