Rhododendron Research

Green graphic with white and yellow bold text reading "BSA Awards with a March 15, 2026 Deadline." Lists nine awards with leaf icons: Distinguished Fellow; $2,000 Emerging Leader Award; $2,000 Mid-Career Excellence in Research Award; $4,000 Michael Cichan Paleobotanical Research Grant - Paleobotanical Section; $2,500 Herman Becker Student Field Work Grant - Paleobotanical Section; $500 Undergraduate Student Research Awards; $1,000 Developing Nations Travel Awards; $500 Professional Members Travel Awards; $595 BSA Student and Postdoc Travel Awards. Includes the URL www.botany.org/home/awards.html, the Botanical Society of America logo, and a QR code.

BSA is set to give out over $150,000 in awards and grants this year — and many have deadlines that are THIS SUNDAY, March 15th!

Travel awards, research awards, and recognition for early-career, mid-career, and professional members.

Learn more: botany.org/home/awards.... #BSAawards #IamaBotanist

Group photo of PLANTS Undergraduate Travel Award recipients at the Botany 2025 conference. Text reads: PLANTS Undergraduate Travel Award and Mentored Experience — Now Accepting Applications! Benefits include mentorship, complimentary conference registration, free travel and lodging, meals, a field trip, and a 3-year BSA student membership. Deadline March 15, 2026. Visit botany.org.

Hey Botanical Science Undergrads, the PLANTS Grant deadline is coming up!!

This award covers Botany 2026 travel, lodging, meals, mentorship, a conference field trip & a complimentary 3-year BSA membership.

Deadline: March 15, 2026
For more information, visit: botany.org/home/awards/...

Juliana Medeiros of The Holden Arboretum presents The Science of Color in Rhododendrons YouTube video by Rhododendron SocietyCT

A fun talk on Rhododendron minus pigments

how they protect plants from stressful conditions

how they vary across the species range

and some ideas on why we have a preponderance of cold hardy purple flowers, while yellows and reds are more common in tropical species

Morphological variation in the Rhododendron pseudochrysanthum Hayata (Ericales, Ericaceae) species complex from Taiwan Our study examines the morphological and statistical differentiation within the Rhododendron pseudochrysanthum species complex through comparative analyses of macro- and micro-morphological characters...

Rhododendron sure has some
Complex Species Complexes!
(Aka, Taxonomic uncertainty)

Analysis of Rhododendron pseudochrysanthum species complex shows
R. pseudochrysanthum ssp. morii Yamazaki is distinct from R. morii Hayata, as well as R. pseudochrysanthum Hayata, and R. hyperythrum Hayata!
🧪🌏🍁🌿🌱

Florida's pink pinxter (Rhododendron canescens) azalea is displaying pink flowers with the plant's green leaves visible against a backdrop of leaf litter and a pine tree trunk at the upper left

Pink pinxter azaleas are in bloom this week. #nativeplants #nature #bloomscrolling #ECK #wildflowers #Florida #spring

White azalea with light green flare, a hybrid I believe

Violet rhododendron with dark red flare, big round trusses, maybe Nova Zembla?

When grief becomes too heavy
An angry world
where hearts are broken
I recall you in your garden
I bring your spirit out to play
If only for a moment
May we feel your joyful presence
here with us, again, today
🌺🌿🪴

Trip to BrierHill Garden
May 21, 2021

Fire red orange azaleas with large flowers about 5 inches across and dark orange flare, is it a hybrid? calendulaceum, or canescens? Your guess?

Pink azalea with hot pink centers, flowers about 3 inches across and star shaped, maybe R periclymenoides?

Yellow azalea with pale green flare. A ball truss with about 6 flowers each about 4 inches across, I think a hybrid

White azalea with large pink stamens like hooked beaks, R arborescens?

Winter’s grip is breaking
Bulbs are slowly waking
Next up will be amazing
Rhododendron flower gazing
🌺🌿🥰🎉

Trip to BrierHill Garden
May 21, 2021

Leave a comment if you want to venture an ID, my guesses in alt text
I think I know what some of this stuff is but maybe not
🥰so beautiful!🤩

Pink rhododendron blooms

The rhododendrons are getting ready to bloom in the Seattle area. The flower between mid-March & mid-May. So, they should appear in time for St. Patrick's Day. Knowing parks & neighborhoods are about to explode with color warms my heart. Despite the cold, snow, & slush around us, spring will come.

Not from Ventura, I grew up on a different part of the “Mexican Foods of the World Map”, but I always very much enjoy to see the many different local variations on the theme, first time hearing about Corn Burrito, and it looks yummy 😋

Potted rhododendron in a greenhouse covered top to bottom in orange flowers, the greenhouse light is altering the flower color, in real life the look more brick red-orange

Close up of the Rhododendron kiusianum flowers, this picture is more color accurate showing their brick red petals and magenta flare

Rhododendron kiusianum doing its best to impress an audience of one in the greenhouse today
#bloomscrolling

Rhododendron make great lifelong friends! Nibbling the flowers sounds fun and a bit exciting!

Regulatory mechanisms of amino acid metabolic pathways in Rhododendron chrysanthum Pall. Under UV-B stress UV-B radiation, worsened by ozone layer depletion, threatens plant health. The alpine plant Rhododendron chrysanthum has evolved mechanisms to counteract UV-B damage. This study examined the response ...

Significant resistance of alpine Rhododendron chrysanthum to UV-B damage includes biosynthesis of phenylalanine, tyrosine, & tryptophan & accumulating L-phenylalanine and L-tyrosine, transcrption factors exhibit both synergistic & antagonistic regulatory roles in amino acid metabolic pathways
🧪🌿🍁🌏

Red Rhododendrons at the Mendocino Botanical Gardens, Fort Bragg, Ca.

Happening now at the Mendocino Botanical Gardens! #Rhododendron
#bloomscroll #gardening ❤️

Taking a lot of great quality photos like you have is excellent of course, then probably think about dried pressed and maybe frozen samples if it came to that, fresh flower buds are used for genetics analysis of Rhododendron

The story of the provenance is actually what intrigues me about it, there are many such stories we run across in rhododendron, especially vireya, and some of them are true! There is a nonzero possibility that it is a lost or undescribed species is too important to pass by

Great! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

I think Yasper will first be looking to see if it matches the descriptions of described species which haven’t been seen for a long time, there are about 100 at least that were described 1800-1900s and now essentially lost to science. I will DM once I get info from him

If you would be willing to share samples a student in our lab from Papua who also knows the Vireya flora of Papua New Guinea very well is doing a taxonomic revision for their PhD and would have the skills to be able to try and answer this

I know someone who can tell us the answer to this mystery, hold my beer, I’ll be right back

This is egregious scientific misconduct and the entire journal should definitely be de-indexed and removed from all reputable search engines

Frankly this saddens me, peer reviewed and trustworthy science is one of the most important pillars of society, pretty sure this is how the dark ages started

Sanitation systems, should be a breeze in 1826 technology since they had those in ancient times and just somehow forgot 🤔

I’m wondering how many nurseries actually sell Rhododendron ponticum specifically, and those that do, may I ask, why? with so many other non-problematic rhododendrons to choose from, and with the UK being generally amenable for rhodos of many types, to me it doesn’t make any sense to sell this one

One of THE BEST rhododendron songs, in my opinion, and this live version is - chefs kiss 😘 - outta sight!

The lyrics speak to the big mysteries of rhododendron and give a sense as to why the plants have been so special to humans for millennia

Im delighted they chose it for their live album!

Hey it’s me!
Thanks @aobp.bsky.social for being a great home for excellent papers and also for thoughtful editors!

Photo looking up towards tall, lanky rhodie bushes with magenta/pink flower clusters here and there. Behind are redwood trunks with little branching until quite high up. Sunlight showing between trunks.

Redwood forest Rhodies.
These rhododendrons, Rhododendron macrophyllum, are native to the coastal redwood forest, brightening up the forest each May when the sun is more overhead and the forest canopy keeps trails in more shadow...
Exquisite.
#ForestFriday #rhododendron
#nature #trees #photography

Still thinking about this totally cool finding, like seriously Rhododendron?

HALF of your genome is transposable elements? 🧬

AND these are potentially controlling gene expression? 🎭

thought provoking 🧐

especially for a long-lived woody plant 🤯

Which also has
extremely tiny & numerous seeds ⁉️

BUT WAIT THERES MORE!

✅ hosts all three major mycorrhiza types (ericoid but also EM and AM fungi) PLUS the bizarre and mysterious Dark Septate Endophytes

✅ one if the most promising yet untapped sources of medical secondary compounds

✅ insane floral diversity! I mean look at these crazy plants!

Add Genus Rhododendron to the list of burgeoning plant science model systems

✅ emergence of vast genetics resources

✅ illuminating the roles of natural hybridization X climate in driving evolution of woody plant biodiversity

✅ stellar system for stress physiology in climate change context

🌺🌿🌱🍁🧪

I’m like a moth drawn to their flame!

Small Rhododendron with large flowers, pink with white centers, and some white flowers with pink flecks

Small Rhododendron with large flowers, one pink with white center, and one white with pink stripes and flecks

Small Rhododendron with large flowers, one pink with white center and two white flowers with pink flecks

Rhododendron’Kusudama’
#bonsai
#bloomscrolling

Two junior members of our lab applied to PhD programs this year, and both got in!
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼