General: Erect shrub; stems 0.5-1.5 m tall, rusty soft-hairy.
Leaves: Alternate, evergreen, leathery, oblong to lance-oblong or elliptic, (1.2) 2-6 cm long, 3-15 mm wide, margins strongly to slightly rolled under, tips blunt, upper surface deep green, appearing somewhat wrinkled, glabrous to slightly reddish soft-hairy, copiously rusty or yellowish soft-hairy beneath; stalks 1-5 mm long.
Flowers: In terminal umbrella-like clusters; flower stalks (0.6) 1.2-2.5 cm long, with short, white hairs (rarely with a few contorted, reddish hairs), often glandular, curved in fruit; corollas white, wheel-shaped, 10-12 mm across, the 5 distinct petals spreading, oblong, and 5-8 mm long; calyces less than 1 mm long, minutely white-hairy on margins, sometimes glandular; stamens 5-8, slightly exceeding the styles, filaments glabrous or sometimes hairy at the base.
Fruits: Capsules, narrowly egg-shaped, 4-7 mm long, minutely hairy.
Bogs and moist to wet forests in the lowland and montane zones; common throughout most of BC, infrequent in SC BC; N to AK, E to NF, and S to OR, MN, PA, and NJ.
Ecological Framework for Rhododendron groenlandicum
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
