Rhododendrons

Rhododendron austrinum (deciduous Azalea)
Subgenus Pentanthera Section Pentanthera
H4
AGM 1993 deleted 2002
Small to medium deciduous shrub.
Height: to 2.75m
10 year height/spread: 2m/1.5m
Flowers: tubular funnel shaped to 3.5cm long in trusses of 6-15; creamy-yellow to orange, often with the tube tinged purple and sometimes with purple stripes, with or before the leaves. Fragrant.
May.
Introduced: 1816 by Sargent.
Distribution: from northern Florida and the Georgia-Alabama coastal plain to SE Mississippi.
Recognise by: the densely pubescent young shoots; the densely or moderately pubescent and glandular branchlets, petioles, calyx and corolla tube; the pubescent capsule; the stamens nearly three times as long as the corolla.
Epithet: Southern
Should be more widely grown: free flowering and easy to grow given shelter from cold winds.
Occasionally a small tree to 4.5m in the wild.