Japanese name: ケラマツツジ（慶良間躑躅） Scientific name:Rhododendron scabrum
[Overview]
An evergreen shrub 1–2 m tall, growing at forest edges near the coast.
Young branches are densely covered with brown, flattened bristles.
Leaves are simple and alternate, oblong to obovate-elliptic, 5–8 cm long and 1–3.5 cm wide, thick and papery.
The leaf margins and both surfaces have bristles, especially many on the veins of the underside.
The petiole is 3–10 mm long.
2–4 flowers are borne at the branch tips.
The flowers are red; the corolla is funnel-shaped, about 4.5–6 cm across, and 5-lobed, with dark spots on the inside of the upper lobe.
The petals are thick.
The flower stalk is 1–1.5 cm long and densely covered with flattened bristles, sometimes mixed with glandular dots.
There are 10 stamens.
The fruit is a narrowly ovate capsule 4–10 mm long, densely covered with long brown bristles.
[History]
It was brought to Edo in the Genroku period and cultivated as an ornamental.
It is an important parent species of Hirado-tsutsuji and others.
[Cultivation]
Propagate by cuttings.
It prefers sunny, well-drained, acidic soil.
It is vulnerable to cold and is grown in warm regions.
[Notes]
The Japanese name derives from the Kerama Islands.
