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Rhododendron keleticum; photograph Ghislain118 http://www.fleurs-des-montagnes.net, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAGhislain118 http://www.fleurs-des-montagnes.net, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Rhododendron keleticum Balf.f. & Forrest

Ericaceae · China South-Central, Tibet +1 · listed by its genus as a temperate garden plant

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

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Rhododendron keleticum, photograph Ghislain118 http://www.fleurs-des-montagnes.net, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhododendron keleticum, photograph Ghislain118 https://www.fleurs-des-montagnes.net, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhododendron keleticum, photograph Ghislain118 http://www.fleurs-des-montagnes.net, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhododendron keleticum, photograph Ghislain118 https://www.fleurs-des-montagnes.net, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhododendron keleticum, photograph Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhododendron keleticum, photograph Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›

Summary

Rhododendron keleticum (独龙杜鹃) is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, native to southeast Xizang and northwest Yunnan, China, as well as Myanmar. It grows at altitudes of 3,000–3,900 m (9,800–12,800 ft). It is a dwarf evergreen shrub growing to 5–30 cm (2.0–11.8 in) in height, forming either a mound or a mat of vegetation. It has leathery leaves, elliptic-lanceolate, elliptic, or ovate in shape, 0.6–2 by 0.3–1 cm in size. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Rhododendron keleticum", 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”, “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”, “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: 24 in-range records, none placed to within 10 km. 24 of the 24 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, 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 marker27.701, 98.493 · in the densest population, 22 records (92% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub” · “subalpine or subarctic” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 24 georeferenced records inside the native range, all openly licensed and shown on the map. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. No climate across the range is derived for this species. 24 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 24 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 keleticum, photograph 1did not loadRhododendron keleticum, photograph 2did not loadRhododendron keleticum, photograph 3did not loadRhododendron keleticum, photograph 4did not loadRhododendron keleticum, photograph 5did not loadRhododendron keleticum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Ghislain118 http://www.fleurs-des-montagnes.net, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); Ghislain118 https://www.fleurs-des-montagnes.net, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (2).

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

Also known as Rhododendron calostrotum subsp. keleticum; Rhododendron radicans. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Ericaceae
Described by
Balf.f. & Forrest
Native to
China South-Central, Tibet, Myanmar
Wild records
24 in range · 24 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 4172706 is Rhododendron keleticum Balf.fil. & Forrest; the page links Kew's Rhododendron keleticum Balf.f. & Forrest, 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 2026-10-2224 in-range records, none placed to within 10 km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 6 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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