Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Rhododendron lanatum; photograph (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-05-20

Rhododendron lanatum Hook.f.

Ericaceae · Tibet, East Himalaya +2 · listed by its genus as a temperate garden plant

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

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Rhododendron lanatum, photograph (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY)Rhododendron lanatum, photograph (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY)Rhododendron lanatum, photograph (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY)Rhododendron lanatum, photograph peganum from Henfield, England, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhododendron lanatum, photograph peganum from Henfield, England, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons 6 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-12.5°C
Record low -19.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
14°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,868mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
22–37DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Rhododendron lanatum (syn. Rhododendron flinckii), the woolly rhododendron, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, native to the eastern Himalayas and southeastern Tibet. Occasionally found in commerce, it is a rabbit-tolerant evergreen shrub reaching 3–10 ft (1–3 m). Hardy in USDA zones 7 through 9, it is recommended as a hedge in partly shady situations.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Rhododendron lanatum", 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 “shrub”, “subalpine or subarctic”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,382 mm of 1,765 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 9.9 °C against a yearly mean of 4.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

1,765 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,382 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 410 mm, driest month December at 18 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 751 mm to 2,845 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,868 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,765 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -12.5 °C, the absolute minimum -19.5 °C, 8,780 frost nights in 44 years, 199.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 17.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -9.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -21.4 °C to 4.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 13.9 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -12.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 75% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

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.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +642 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Rhododendron in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “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

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Rhododendron lanatum through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 14 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -9.7 °C; 1,765 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost17.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-19.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 22–37RH 61–75%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 12 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C0 / -7–141 / -6–145 / -3–188 / 1–2111 / 5–2213 / 9–2314 / 10–2314 / 10–2313 / 8–239 / 4–215 / -1–182 / -4–16
Night °C-10 / -21–5-9 / -20–5-5 / -15–8-2 / -10–112 / -5–136 / 0–168 / 2–177 / 2–175 / -1–151 / -7–12-4 / -15–10-7 / -19–7
Rain mm26 / 14–4248 / 16–8069 / 30–124104 / 50–220154 / 61–277279 / 100–426410 / 169–718316 / 156–480223 / 94–36396 / 53–17222 / 10–3618 / 13–29
DLI24 / 19–3228 / 23–3733 / 29–4437 / 32–4836 / 32–4429 / 28–3924 / 21–3426 / 24–3326 / 24–3327 / 24–3324 / 20–3122 / 18–30
RH %61 / 58–6464 / 60–6766 / 62–7066 / 64–7070 / 67–7173 / 70–7475 / 72–7774 / 71–7672 / 70–7366 / 64–7164 / 61–6561 / 59–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 12 grid cells holding the 12 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1251:5405 (27.425, 90.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -19.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -12.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 17.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 12 distinct grid cells holding 12 of the 12 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1251:5405 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 27.50_90.000, lapse-corrected +642 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 3680 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeTibet, East Himalaya, Nepal, 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 marker27.503, 89.878 · in the densest population, 14 records (82% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “subalpine or subarctic” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 17 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 12 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 11 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 49 km away. 5 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 17 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 lanatum, photograph 1did not loadRhododendron lanatum, photograph 2did not loadRhododendron lanatum, photograph 3did not loadRhododendron lanatum, photograph 4did not loadRhododendron lanatum, photograph 5did not load

Photographs: (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); peganum from Henfield, England, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Meconopsis superba Papaveraceae Larix griffithii Larix griffithii Sikkim larch Photo: CC BY, Andrew LieCyananthus lobatus Cyananthus lobatus Campanulaceae Photo: CC BY, V_Nebenfuehr Rhododendron baileyi Ericaceae Rhododendron lepidotum Rhododendron lepidotum Scaly rhododendron Photo: CC0, author not statedJuniperus recurva Juniperus recurva Drooping juniper Photo: CC0, author not stated

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 Azalea lanata; Rhododendron flinckii. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Ericaceae
Described by
Hook.f.
Native to
Tibet, East Himalaya, Nepal +1
Wild records
17 in range · 11 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 4936730 is Rhododendron lanatum Hook.fil.; the page links Kew's Rhododendron lanatum Hook.f., 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 27.50_90.000, lapse-corrected +642 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
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 8 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…