Japanese name: ホツツジ（穂躑躅） Scientific name:Elliottia paniculata
[Overview]
A deciduous shrub 1–2 m tall, found on sunny, poor ground such as rocky places in the mountains.
It branches freely from the base.
Young branches are tinged with red and have three fin-like ridges.
Leaves are simple and alternate, elliptic, 2–6 cm long and 1–3 cm wide, with an entire margin.
A panicle at the branch tip bears many flowers.
The axis of the inflorescence is densely covered with short hairs, and there are bracts at the base of the inflorescence.
The flowers are white tinged with pale pink; the corolla is deeply 3-lobed, and the tips of the lobes curve back.
The pistil projects far out of the flower.
The fruit is a globose capsule enclosed in a cup-shaped calyx.
[Notes]
The Japanese name means an azalea whose flowers form spikes.
