Thread: Some random scribblings

The rhododendrum is the king of the understory in the Southern Appalachians. June is the month that this shrub, which grows big as trees in the moist conditions of the mountains down here, flowers in mad profusion. We've got two varieties, the larger-leafed white rosebay, and the smaller-leafed purple to pink catawba. I prefer the catawba when it's in flower. Both can form thickets, hells, slicks, lettuce-beds, patches, etc... as I call them, that can make cross-country travel not a matter of miles-per-hour, but rather a matter of hours-per-mile. Voluntarily and involuntary expletives are the norm when threading a route through this stuff (and just try to use a map and compass when all around you is impenetrable green). Interestingly enough (perhaps) is the fact that rhododendrum is often referred to locally as laurel, though laurel is more properly the mountain laurel, with pink-highlighted hexagonal white flowers that bloom in May, a bit earlier than the rhododendrum.

Here's catawba rhododendrum in all its' glory.





Its' neighbor, the flame azalea is no slouch either.





.