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Rhododendron ponticum
Also called Pontian Rhododendron, Common Rhododendron
Rhododendron ponticum is a dense, evergreen, suckering shrub or small tree with violet-purple flowers, widely planted in Europe and often used as a grafting rootstock; it is invasive in parts of Britain.
Rhododendron ponticum, called common rhododendron or pontic rhododendron, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae. It is native to the Iberian Peninsula in southwest Europe and the Caucasus region in northern West Asia.
Rhododendron ponticum subsp. baeticum is one of the most extensively cultivated rhododendrons in western and central Europe. It is used as an ornamental plant in its own right and, more frequently, as a rootstock onto which other more attractive rhododendrons are grafted. The plants were first cultivated in Britain in the 1760s, supplied by Conrad Loddiges, and became widely distributed through the commercial nursery trade in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The roots readily produce suckers below the graft, which can sometimes overtake the intended grafted rhododendron.
Honey produced with pollen from the flowers of this plant can be poisonous if consumed in sufficient quantities, causing severe hypotension and bradycardia in humans. It is known as mad honey due to its toxic diterpenes (grayanotoxins). This poisonous honey plays a significant part in the 2023 film A Haunting in Venice.
The species has two disjunct populations, one in the southwestern Iberian Peninsula (central and southern Portugal and southwestern Spain) and the other near the southern Black Sea Basin (eastern Bulgaria, northern Turkey, Georgia, and Northern Caucasus). It has also been introduced to Madeira, Myanmar, Belgium, the British Isles, Netherlands and France.
Rhododendron album · Rhododendron anthopogon · Rhododendron argyrophyllum · Rhododendron augustinii · Rhododendron bureavii · Rhododendron calophytum · Rhododendron calostrotum · Bell Flowered Rhododendron · Bent-style rhododendron · Rhodora · Catawba rosebay · Georgian Snow Rose
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Rhododendron ponticum 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.
