''Rhododendron simiarum'', the South China rhododendron, is one of the many

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

of the genus ''

Rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nativ ...

'', which mainly grows in Southern China. The species has also developed a habitat in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, being one of the six native species of rhododendrons grown in Hong Kong, commonly found in the slopes of Ma On Shan, and

Lantau Island Lantau Island (also Lantao Island, Lan Tao) is the largest island in Hong Kong, located West of Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula, and is part of the New Territories. Administratively, most of Lantau Island is part of the Islands ...

. It is also distributed in Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang.

Description

It grows as a bushy shrub or small tree, typically , but can be as tall as . The bark is grey in color, exfoliating into thin, small, irregular flakes. The young shoots are densely covered with tomentose grey hairs, later becoming hairless. The branchlets are grey tomentose when young, with those more than one year old glabrescent. The flowers bloom from April to early May, having up to 4 to 6 clustered flowers at the top of branches, each funnel-shaped, pink with red spots at first, but turning lighter when fully opened, ranging from white to dark pink.

References

simiarum Endemic flora of China Flora of Hong Kong Flora of China {{Ericaceae-stub