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Rhododendron calophytum, the beautiful-face rhododendron, is an evergreen shrub or small tree from western China, grown for its large white, pink or purplish-red flowers with dark blotches. It is a species, not a genus, and it does best in cool, humid, sheltered conditions with acidic soil.
Rhododendron calophytum, the beautiful-face rhododendron (Chinese: 美容杜鹃; pinyin: Měiróng dùjuān), is an evergreen shrub or small tree in the family Ericaceae. It is endemic to China and is mainly distributed in Shaanxi, Gansu, Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan. Its specific epithet calophytum derives from Greek and means "beautiful plant".
In cultivation in the UK, Rhododendron calophytum has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Wild Rhododendron calophytum seeds are very small, have a low natural germination rate, and traditional cutting propagation roots slowly. Modern botany has successfully established a leaf regeneration system through plant tissue culture, laying a foundation for large-scale clonal propagation. For sexual propagation, studies have found that soaking seeds in gibberellic acid (GA3) can significantly break dormancy and increase the germination rate. In addition, rice-husk charcoal extract at a specific concentration can effectively promote seed germination and shorten the germination lag.
Rhododendron album · Rhododendron anthopogon · Rhododendron argyrophyllum · Rhododendron augustinii · Rhododendron bureavii · Rhododendron calostrotum · Bell Flowered Rhododendron · Bent-style rhododendron · Rhodora · Catawba rosebay · Georgian Snow Rose · Dahurian Rhododendron
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Rhododendron calophytum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
