72 Popular Studies of California Wild Flowers 



Rhododendron or Rose Bay (R. calif or nicum) 



By Roland Rice 



The Rhododendron or Rose Bay is a native of the Redwood 

 belt and is found in the Coast Mountains from Santa Cruz County 

 northward into Oregon and Washington, where it has been honored 

 as the State flower. It seems to prefer the rugged mountainsides, 

 where its shrubs, from ten to fifteen feet high, often form dense 

 thickets of magnificent colorful bloom. The evergreen leaves are 

 from three to ten inches long, and are a smooth, rich green, but not 

 shiny. These decorative leaves spread out around the base of the 

 flower clusters in such a way as to set them off to advantage. The 

 flowers are over two inches across and are usually set in clusters of 

 five or six. The beautifully shaded pink petals are speckled on the 

 upper side, with green or gold-brown spots and strange arrowhead 

 markings. The blossoms are lacking in perfume, but the leaves are 

 pleasantly fragrant. The sight of these glowing masses of gorgeous 

 bloom is worth going far to see. John Muir, in his famous essay, 

 "Bee Pastures," says: "To the northward, in Humboldt and adja- 

 cent counties, whole hillsides are covered with Rhododendrons, 

 making a glorious melody of bee-bloom in the spring; and the 

 Western Azalea, hardly less flowery, grows in massy thickets from 

 three to eight feet high around the edges of groves and woods as 

 far south as San Luis Obispo." 



A belief that Rhododendrons furnished bees with a poisonous 

 nectar for their honey seems not to have been taken into considera- 

 tion by Muir. Such a tradition has been handed down from the 

 days in ancient history, when Xenophon wrote of the retreat of the 

 ten thousand, saying: "The camp soon looked like a battlefield 

 covered with the slain, where the men fell stupefied from the effects 

 of wild honey gathered by bees from Rhododendrons." The com- 

 mon evergreen shrub of Europe, Rhododendron ponticum, is said 

 to have been the plant, but there is a difference of opinions ; some 

 believe that Azalea ponticum was the source of the trouble, for 

 similar effects from honey poison occurred in places where the true 

 Rhododendron did not grow. Perhaps the ancients were speaking 

 of a different plant. The name Rhododendron, meaning rose-tree, 

 was used in classic times to designate the oleander. 



Most botanists place the Rhododendron and Azalea in the same 

 genus. There are several members of this interesting group in 

 North America. It is quite a large family and many of its members 

 are found in Asia and in tropical countries, where, as in Java, they 

 are confined to the highlands. Some are epiphytic in character, 

 growing on trees like mistletoe ; these grow in the tropic islands of 

 the East Indies. Several varieties are found in the hilly regions 

 of China, Japan, and the Malay Peninsula. The largest is a good- 

 sized tree growing on the lower slopes of the lofty Himalayas in 

 India. It is used for lumber. 



The California Rose Bay is highly prized in Europe. It has 

 been hybridized with the Himalayan and other species, and a variety 



