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Rhododendron forrestii; photograph Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons CC0Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Rhododendron forrestii Balf.f. ex Diels

Ericaceae · China South-Central, Tibet +2 · listed by its genus as a temperate garden plant

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Rhododendron forrestii Balf.f. ex Diels: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Balf.fil. ex Diels.

No habitat climate
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Rhododendron forrestii, photograph Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhododendron forrestii, photograph Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhododendron forrestii, photograph Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhododendron forrestii, photograph Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhododendron forrestii, photograph Megan Hansen, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhododendron forrestii, photograph Joanna Boisse, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 10 photographs ›

Summary

Rhododendron forrestii (Chinese: 紫背杜鹃) is a species of dwarf creeping shrub in the heath family Ericaceae. It is native to the high-altitude regions of southwestern China and northeastern Myanmar. The species was first collected by plant hunter George Forrest in 1905 and was formally described by German botanist Ludwig Diels in 1912.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Rhododendron forrestii", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Rhododendron

Rhododendron, from Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon), meaning "rose", and δένδρον (déndron), meaning "tree", is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan region, but smaller numbers occur elsewhere in Asia, and in North America, Europe and Australia.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Rhododendron", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant, listed under the genus Rhododendron in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “subshrub or shrub”, “subalpine or subarctic”.

Nothing derived: no habitat climate for this species.
How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Group. Listed under the genus Rhododendron in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “subshrub or shrub”, “subalpine or subarctic”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

No habitat climate can be derived: Only 1 distinct land cell of the climate grid holds an in-range record placed to within 10 km; three are needed for an envelope. 31 of the 32 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or to no stated accuracy and fewer than three decimals or by something other than a person's observation, and cannot place a climate cell, though they count for the map and its marker.

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Tibet, East Himalaya, Myanmar · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker28.04, 98.8 · in the densest population, 20 records (63% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “subalpine or subarctic” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 32 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 26 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 5 records outside the WCVP native range not used. No climate across the range is derived for this species. 31 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 32 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Rhododendron forrestii, photograph 1did not loadRhododendron forrestii, photograph 2did not loadRhododendron forrestii, photograph 3did not loadRhododendron forrestii, photograph 4did not loadRhododendron forrestii, photograph 5did not loadRhododendron forrestii, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (4); Megan Hansen, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Joanna Boisse, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Other Rhododendron 574 in the reference

Rhododendron aberconwayi Rhododendron aberconwayi Ericaceae Photo: Public domain, Daderot Rhododendron abietifolium Ericaceae Rhododendron acrophilum Ericaceae Rhododendron adamsii Rhododendron adamsii Sagan Dalya Photo: CC BY, Valentin KosterinRhododendron adenogynum Rhododendron adenogynum Ericaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt StüberRhododendron adenopodum Rhododendron adenopodum Ericaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Ulf EliassonRhododendron adenosum Rhododendron adenosum Ericaceae Photo: CC0, DaderotRhododendron aeruginosum Rhododendron aeruginosum Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, Siddarth MachadoRhododendron aganniphum Rhododendron aganniphum Ericaceae Photo: CC0, Daderot Rhododendron agathodaemonis Ericaceae Rhododendron alabamense Rhododendron alabamense Alabama azalea Photo: CC BY, Rob JohnRhododendron albiflorum Rhododendron albiflorum White rhododendron Photo: CC0, author not stated all 575 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Ericaceae
Described by
Balf.f. ex Diels
Native to
China South-Central, Tibet, East Himalaya +1
Wild records
32 in range · 26 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 7389399 is Rhododendron forrestii Balf.fil. ex Diels; the page links Kew's Rhododendron forrestii Balf.f. ex Diels, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22only 1 distinct land cell of the climate grid holds an in-range record placed to within 10 km; three are needed for an envelope
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 332445-1 is Kew's for Rhododendron forrestii Balf.f. ex Diels
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 19 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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