132 THE AZALEAS OF NORTH AMERICA 



? Azalea nudiflora var. thyrsiflora Gowen apud Lindley in Bot. Reg. XVI. 



t. 1367 (1830). 



Rhododendron speciosum a. major Sweet, Hort. Brit. ed. 2, 343 (1830). 

 Rhododendron nudiflorum f. cocdneum Sweet, Hort. Brit. ed. 2, 343 (1830). 



G. Don, Gen. Syst. III. 847 (1834). 



Azalea speciosa a. coccinea De Candolle, Prodr. VII. 717 (1839). 

 Azalea calendulacea Darby, Bot. S. States, 422 (1855), in part. 

 Rhododendron cakndulaceum Chapman, Fl. S. U. S. 265 (1860), in part. 

 Rhododendron calendulaceum f . speciosum Voss, Vilmorin's Blumengdrt. I. 588 



(1894). Zabel in Beissner, Schelle & Zabel, Handb. Laubholz-Ben. 380 



(1903). 

 Rhododendron flammeum Sargent in Rhodod. Soc. Notes, I. 120 (1918), name 



only, not Azalea flammea Bartr. 1 



A shrub 0.3 to 2 m. tall with slender, irregularly whorled branches; the young 

 branchlets finely pubescent and rather densely strigillose, becoming grayish brown 

 the second year; floral winter-buds glabrous, with generally ovate, ciliolate scales, 

 usually rounded and mucronate at apex. Leaves obovate or elliptic to oblong, 

 acute or obtusish, mucronulate, broad-cuneate at base, 3 to 6 cm. long and 1.2 to 

 2 or sometimes to 3 cm. broad, strigillose above, finely pubescent beneath, more 

 densely on the leaves of the shoots and particularly on the veins, often strigose 

 on the midrib, sometimes nearly glabrous except on the midrib beneath, setosely 

 ciliate, subchartaceous at maturity, with prominent lateral veins; petioles 3 to 5 mm. 

 long, pubescent and strigillose. Flowers appearing with the leaves end of April and 

 beginning of May in 6- to 15-flowered umbel-like racemes, scarlet or bright red, 

 with a large orange blotch on the upper lobe; pedicels strigillose, not glandular; 

 sepals roundish ovate to oblong, 0.5 to 3 mm. long, long-ciliate, pubescent or 

 nearly glabrous outside; corolla funnel-form, tube cylindric, rather slender, 2 to 

 2.5 cm. long, longer than the limb, rather abruptly dilated at the apex, covered 

 outside with fine villose pubescence interspersed with long pilose not gland-tipped 

 hairs, pubescent inside, lobes ovate, abruptly acuminate, 1.5 to 2 cm. long; stamens 

 much exserted, more than twice as long as tube and slightly shorter than the style, 

 the filaments pubescent below the middle; style 5 to 6 cm. long, finely pubescent at 

 the lower third, usually purplish above; ovary covered with long setose hairs, not 

 glandular. Fruit ovoid to narrow-oblong narrowed toward the apex, 2 to 3 cm. 

 long, strigose. 



This species is distributed through central Georgia from the Savannah River 

 to the Chattahoochee River, its range extending north to Gwinnett County and 

 to Oconee County of South Carolina, south to Screven County in the east and to 

 Muscogee County in the west. 2 It is usually a low shrub and grows in open dry 

 woods and on sand hills, often covering large stretches and is very conspicuous 

 when in bloom on account of the brilliant color of its flowers. 



1 ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS. COLORED PLATES: Drapiez, Herb. Amat. 1. t. 51 

 (1828), as A. nudiflora. ? Audubon, Birds Am. II. t. 198 (1831); Quarto ed. 

 II. 86 & 104 (1841), poorly colored. BLACK FIGURES: Dippel, Handb. Laubholzk. 

 I. fig. 266 (1889), after Watson, Dendr. Brit., as R. calendulaceum. Voss, 

 Vitmorin's Blumengdrt. I. 588 (1894), same as preceding. 



2 Mohr mentions under A. nudiflora (PL Life Ala. 653 [1901] ) a form with flame 

 or deep orange-colored flowers from Springhill, Mobile County, which he refers to 

 A. nudiflora var. rutilans Pursh; this may be either an undescribed color form of 

 R. canescens or it may be R. speciosum and in this case the range of R. speciosum 

 would extend to southwestern Alabama. I have not seen any specimen of this 

 form. 



