Bailey, Stand. Cycl. Hort. 6: 3571 (1917)
Verified by:
Shrub or small tree to 5m tall, usually non-rhizomatous; young twigs red-brown, densely covered with unicellular hairs and multicellular gland-tipped hairs. Vegetative bud scales densely covered with unicellular hairs abaxially; margin glandular. Leaf blade membranaceous, ovate or obovate to elliptic, (4.7-)5.4-8.8(-10.0) x (2.1-)2.2-3.2(-3.9)cm; base acute to oblique; apex acute to obtuse, often mucronate; adaxial surface densely covered with unicellular hairs, or widi unicellular hairs and multicellular gland-tipped hairs, the midvein densely covered with unicellular hairs; abaxial surface densely covered with unicellular hairs, the midvein densely covered with unicellular hairs and multicellular gland-tipped hairs; margin entire, ciliate with multicellular eglandular and gland-tipped hairs; petiole 0.2-0.5cm long, densely covered with unicellular hairs and multicellular gland-tipped hairs. Flower bud scales chestnut brown; abaxial surface densely covered with unicellular hairs; margin glandular. Flowers appearing before or with the leaves; inflorescence a shortened raceme of 10 to 24 flowers. Pedicels (0.5-)0.6-l.l(-1.7)cm long, densely covered with unicellular hairs and multicellular gland-tipped hairs. Sepals less than 0.1-0.2cm long, often varying in length on the same flower; margins glandular-fimbriate; abaxial surface densely covered with unicellular hairs and multicellular gland-tipped hairs. Corolla yellow, apricot or orange to red-orange, fragrance musky-sweet, the tube longer than the limb and gradually expanding into it; upper corolla lobe 0.9-1.4(-l.8) x 0.6-1.2(-1.4)cm; lateral lobes (l.l-)1.2-1.7(-2.0)x0.5-0.9(-l.l)cm; corolla tube 1.8-2.3(-2.4)cm long, 0.2-0.4(-0.5)cm wide at base; outer surface of corolla sparsely to densely covered with unicellular hairs and multicellular gland-tipped hairs; inner surface of corolla sparsely to densely covered with unicellular hairs. Stamens (5.2-)5.4-6.8(-7.7)cm long, with dense terete or flattened unicellular hairs on proximal (2.5-)2.8-3.6(-3.7)cm of filament, exserted (3.3-)3.5-4.8(-5.7)cm beyond throat of corolla. Style (5.4-)5.5-6.8(-7.5)cm long, exserted (3.2-)3.6-4.9(-5.5)cm beyond throat of corolla, with dense unicellular hairs on proximal (0.3-)0.5-1.7(-2.2)cm; stigma 0.1-0.2(-0.3)cm wide. Ovary 0.3-0.5(-0.6)cm long, 0.1-0.2cm wide at the base, densely covered with multicellular gland-tipped hairs and unicellular hairs, or also with multicellular eglandular hairs. Capsules (1.4-) 1.6-2.3 (-2.5) x (0.3-)0.4-0.5cm, narrowly ovate, moderately to densely covered with unicellular hairs and sparsely to moderately densely covered with multicellular gland-tipped hairs. Seeds pale to dark chestnut brown, ovate or elliptic to fusiform, (l.l-)1.7-2.8(-2.9) x 0.7-0.9(-1.0)mm, body 1.0ó1.5(ó1.7) x (0.2-)0.3-0.5(-0.6)mm; testa expanded and dorsiventrally flattened, surrounding the body, the cells short throughout, with transverse end-walls
USA: Florida pan-handle and adjacent Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi
Upland mixed mesic hardwoods, bluffs of rivers or stream banks, river bottoms, swamps
Azalea austrina Small, FL S.E. US ed. 2. 1356, 1375 (1913). Type: Wooded hillsides, Chattahoochee, Florida, iv and x, Curtiss 1718* (holo. NY). Rhododendron roseum (Loisel.) Rehder f. lutescens Rehder, Contr. Gray Herb. 165:9 (1947). Type: Pennsylvania: J. P. Gable, Stewartstown, Rehder s.n. (holo. A).
Kron, K.A. (1993) A Revision of Rhododendron Section Pentanthera. Edinburgh Journal of Botany 50(3):293