Rhododendron Species in our Midst: Rhododendron semibarbatum (not your mother's favorite azalea)

摘要

The small and nearly hidden flowers of Rhododendron semibarbatum are not showy enough for anyone, alone your mother, to consider it among her favorites. R semibarbatum, has always been considered by rhododendron experts as a loner, almost an outsider.The species has been difficult to classify exacdy where in the enormous genus Rhododendron it belongs. In the old Balfourian system it was classified as a distinctive species in the Semibarbatum series (Davidian 1992). Then it was classified as a lone member of the subgenus Mumeazalea (Cullen 2005). The two bearded stamens notwithstanding, just like most azaleas, it has five stamens. In DNA research of Goetsch et. al. (2005) it aligns with another unique species, R nipponicum, and their results indicate that it may be more closely related to evergreen azaleas than previously thought.