Rhododendron occidentalis is a hybrid of Rhododendron collinum, Rhododendron azalea and Rhododendron pubescens in Holland and Belgium. This is the most beautiful azalea. It is also one of the main types of potted flower production in the world. Rhododendron occidentalis can be seen everywhere in flower shops, supermarkets and families in Europe and America, and its cultivation is very common.
morphological character
Evergreen shrub. Lateral roots and fibrous roots, slender roots, woody, yellowish brown or yellowish, young roots milky white or milky yellow, fibrous roots as thin as hair, densely distributed. The plants are low and the branches are tight. Most of the branches are spread out, and the young branches are blue and densely covered with yellow-brown hair. The color of new branches will turn brown with the deepening of growth time, and the perennial branches are dark brown, and the epidermis is easy to fall off.
Leaves alternate, papery, thick, young leaves cyan, mature leaves dark green, white back, brown after natural shedding. Leaves clustered at the ends of branches, elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, sharp and short, wedge-shaped at the base, few leaves with light yellow hairs on the surface, light green hairs on the back and sparse yellow hairs. Leaves first, then flowers.
Terminal raceme with 1-3 flowers in clusters, each with more than 10 clusters. Pedicels are 0.5- 1.5 cm long, with an average of 1.05 cm, with dense white velveteen; Calyx is large, 5-lobed, lobes lanceolate, 0.5- 1.4 cm long, with an average of 0.98 cm, with cilia at the edge and dense hairs outside as pedicels; Corolla is funnel-shaped, 2.2-4.0 cm long, with an average of 3. 17 cm. The length of the tube is 0.8-2.0 cm, with an average of 1.35 cm, and the caliber is 5.0- 10.0 cm, with an average of 7.95 cm, with 5 valves and a wide oval shape. The style is 0.5-3.5 cm long, with an average of 1.48 cm, which changes greatly and is hairless. Ovary dense white, rough, with 6 cells. Petalization of stamens. Monochrome, multicolor, edging, pink and other colors are rich and varied, and the patterns are complex, mostly double, compound and semi-double, and few single petals. The flowers are round, backward-turned, wavy, shriveled and curled, and bud easily.
Capsule oblong-ovoid, 6-8 mm long, densely reddish brown, strigose. Under natural ecological conditions, flowers bloom many times a year, and there are flowers in all seasons, but most of them are concentrated in winter and spring.