Today's big hit was Rhododendron moupinense. Or maybe we were just as excited about Rhododendron charitopes Subsp charitopes. Not that I was sure I could tell the difference without the tags. And then we really liked these, but couldn't tell if they were the same as either of the ones above. The tags we found in this area seem to be for a red-flowered rhododendron that has no open flowers, and there isn't any other rhody listed in the area, all the way at the end of the North Garden. Here is What Rhody 1. Is it R. charitopes? And here is What Rhody 2, which I thought was different. Is it R. moupinense? From the habit photos, I'd expect the names to be the opposite of what I thought based on the flowers. I'm posting this Rhododendron barbatum, just starting to open, to compare the date I posted it last year - February 14, when it was at about the same stage or maybe just a bit more open.
Douglas Justice wrote up Rhododendron mucronulatum in his January newsletter, but they're still just starting to bloom. Douglas mentioned it as being evergreen, and I've seen it listed as evergreen on some pages and deciduous on others. The ones in the garden don't seem to be evergreen. Maybe that depends on where they're growing?
Indeed, Wendy caught me out mixing up my rhodorastras (Rhododendron section Rhododendron subsection Rhodorastra). Rhododendron dauricum is (at least most of them are) evergreen, while R. mucronulatum is definitely deciduous. The pictures of the white-flowered rhododendrons below present another set of mistakes. One rhododendron has lax stems and widely flared flowers that droop (this is R. moupinense). The other, which is more upright with more up-facing smaller flowers, we now think is a hybrid from the Bric-a-Brac Group (R. leucaspis x R. moupinense). The R. charitopes label was mistakenly applied (it's not even close in appearance). We are in the middle of verifying these identifications and will put out new labels accordingly. Thanks for the help.
Ha! Now I'm more confused, not less. Wikipedia shows as synonyms for R. mucronulatum: Rhododendron dauricum var. mucronulatum (Turcz.) Maxim. Rhododendron dauricum subsp. mucronulatum (Turcz.) Vorosch.
They are related, with similar flowers but as D. said R. dauricum retains some leaves (often not very well) while R. mucronulatum is quite deciduous.
I like to post the pictures of this Rhododendron mucronulatum & Rhododendron dauricum sp., how it looks in nature, Far East of Russia. Very showy
