Swamp Azalea

Here is Rhododendron viscosum, known as Swamp Azalea or Swamp Honeysuckle. After discovering this beauty a few days ago, I returned for some setting sun shots. This is a solitary bush close to the shoreline.

I originally intended to catalog each species according to its native or alien state. (That is, native defined as present when Europeans first settled in North America.) That intent soon went by the wayside, but we can see that the Swamp Azalea is a native species, as illustrated in this excerpt from A Monograph of Azaleas:

"Rhododendron viscosum was apparently first observed by John Banister, an English missionary who sent a drawing of it to Dr. Compton, Bishop of London. Dr. Compton communicated it to Plukenet, who published it in 1691 in his Phytographia. The plant was introduced into England apparently in the first half of the 18th century by John Bartram, who sent seeds or plants to Peter Collinson, but the exact date is not known."






Wilson, Ernest Henry and Rehder, Alfred. A Monograph of Azaleas. Cambridge 1921. 160. Web. Google Book Search. 10 Jul 2009.