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Rhododendron polycladum; photograph Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAStan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Rhododendron polycladum Franch.

Ericaceae · China South-Central · listed by its genus as a temperate garden plant

No habitat climate
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Rhododendron polycladum, photograph Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhododendron polycladum, photograph Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhododendron polycladum, photograph Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhododendron polycladum, photograph Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhododendron polycladum, photograph Ulf Eliasson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhododendron polycladum, photograph C T Johansson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 10 photographs ›

Summary

Rhododendron polycladum (多枝杜鹃) is a rhododendron species native to central and northwestern Yunnan in China, where it grows at altitudes of 3,000–4,300 m (9,800–14,100 ft). It is an evergreen shrub that grows to 1.2 m (3.9 ft) in height, with leaves that are narrowly elliptic, oblong or lanceolate, 0.6–1.5 by 0.2–0.4 cm in size. The flowers are lavender to purple-blue.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Rhododendron polycladum", 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”.

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 “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: 21 in-range records, none placed to within 10 km. 21 of the 21 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 · 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 marker26.5, 99.5 · in the densest population, 18 records (86% 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 21 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 20 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. No climate across the range is derived for this species. 21 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 21 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 polycladum, photograph 1did not loadRhododendron polycladum, photograph 2did not loadRhododendron polycladum, photograph 3did not loadRhododendron polycladum, photograph 4did not loadRhododendron polycladum, photograph 5did not loadRhododendron polycladum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); Ulf Eliasson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; C T Johansson, CC BY-SA 3.0, 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

Also known as Azalea polyclada; Rhododendron compactum; Rhododendron scintillans. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Ericaceae
Described by
Franch.
Native to
China South-Central
Wild records
21 in range · 20 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 2026-10-22
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 nothing to reportasked 2026-10-2221 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 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…