12 December 2022.
Clarke County, Alabama, United States
Locality: Plants growing on woodland slopes below the hilltop parking area leading down to the Silver Creek Lake Campground off of Silver Creek Lake Road. Occasional in the woodlands.
Coordinates: 31.6650, -87.5747
(Map it)
Elevation: 43m.
Habitat: Wild Habitat
Environment description: Plants are growing in shade of moist mesic deciduous and evergreen woodland on rich slopes 1-3 meters above a small spring-fed creek.
Soils: The underlying geology of this area is Claiborne Group, Tallahatta Formation, of Eocene origin, with white to very light-greenish-gray thin-bedded to massive siliceous claystone; interbedded with thin layers of fossiliferous clay, sandy clay, and glauconitic sand and sandstone.
Source: USGS Alabama Geological Map Data (https://mrdata.usgs.gov/geology/state/state.php?state=AL)
The primary soil types in the collection area are classified as Smithdale-Boykin Complex soils (2 to 5 percent slopes). The Smithdale Series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils on ridge tops and hill slopes in dissected uplands of the Southern Coastal Plain and in the Western Coastal Plain. They formed in thick beds of loamy marine sediments and are strongly acid. Slopes range from 1 to 60 percent. The Boykin Series consists of deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils that formed in sandy and loamy coastal plain sediments of Pleistocene age. These soils are on gently sloping to moderately steep uplands. Slopes range from 1 to 20 percent.
Source: NRCS Web Soil Survey (https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/WebSoilSurvey.aspx)
Number of plants sampled: 15
Associated species: Magnolia macrophylla, Magnolia grandiflora, Ostrya virginiana, Chasmanthium sessiliflorum, Mitchella repens, Pinus taeda, Fagus grandifolia, Quercus alba, Morella cerifera, Benthamidia florida, Quercus laurifolia, Prunus serotina, Crataegus sp., Ditrysinia fruticosa, Callicarpa americana, Ilex opaca, Liquidambar styraciflua, Polystichum acrostichoides, Symplocos tinctoria, Oxydendrum arboreum, Calycanthus floridus, Hamamelis virginiana, Nyssa sylvatica, Arundinaria gigantea, Rhododendron canescens, Carex sp., Cartrema americana, Pinus glabra, Ilex longipes, Aesculus pavia, Gelsemium sempervirens, Acer rubrum, Hypericum sp., Ilex decidua
Comment: (NOTE: Since this is a newer species to science and not well known or widely grown, the description that follows is directly from the paper referenced at the end of this description:)
Many-stemmed shrub or small tree to 7m tall, non-rhizomatous except under stressed conditions; juvenile shoots cinnamon brown, covered with sparse unicellular and sparse to dense (toward the tips) appressed multicellular, eglandular hairs. Vegetative bud scales glabrous abaxially; margin densely unicellular ciliate. Leaves membranaceous and dull green to coriaceous and glossy green, 4-8 cm × 2-4 cm; blade obovate to occasionally oblong, base cuneate, apex broadly acute, mucronate, entire; adaxial surface and midvein sparsely covered with multicellular hairs, with unicellular hairs near the petiole; abaxial surface sometimes glabrous, usually covered with scattered unicellular and occasional appressed multicellular hairs, the abaxial midvein with appressed multicellular eglandular hairs; margin entire, ciliate with unicellular and appressed multicellular eglandular hairs; petioles 0.3-0.7 cm long, densely covered with unicellular hairs and appressed multicellular eglandular hairs, often with scattered multicellular gland-tipped hairs on petioles and the bases of young leaves. Flower buds 1.0-1.5 cm (long) x 0.6-0.8 cm (wide), when immature rather narrow and tapered to a sharp apex. Bud scales awned, brownish-green (drying chestnut brown), lacking dark rims except in winter; adaxial surface villous with unicellular hairs; abaxial surface covered by minute unicellular papillae; margin unicellular-ciliate, very dense and shaggy toward the tip, non-glandular. Inflorescence appearing after the leaves have expanded; a shortened raceme of 8-10 flowers.
Pedicels 0.5-0.7 cm long, densely covered with unicellular and multicellular glandular hairs. Sepals 0.05-0.1 cm long, margins setose-fimbriate with multicellular eglandular hairs; abaxial surface sparsely to densely covered with unicellular hairs and multicellular eglandular hairs, occasionally with glandular multicellular hairs. Corolla white with a yellow blotch on the upper corolla lobe, or uniformly white, pink with yellow blotch, or uniformly pink (rarely yellow); fragrance sweet, musky, and lemony; corolla 2.5-5 cm wide, often reflexed, very variably shaped; corolla tube 1.6-2.5 cm long, 0.25-0.4 cm wide at base; outer surface of corolla covered with unicellular and multicellular gland-tipped hairs, often in rows on the ridges of the tubes; inner surface of corolla densely covered with unicellular hairs. Stamens 4.5-6.7 cm long, with flattened unicellular hairs the base of the filament, exserted 2.5-3.5 cm beyond the throat of corolla. Style 5-7 cm long, exserted 3-4 cm beyond the throat, usually curved upward, with dense unicellular hairs on the proximal end, often light brown or reddish toward the distal end; stigma 0.1-0.2 cm wide. Ovary 0.20-0.35 cm long, 0.1-0.2 cm wide at the base, densely covered with unicellular and multicellular eglandular and occasionally glandular hairs. Fruit a capsule 1.3-3.0 cm long, 0.3-0.5 cm wide at base, cylindrical with prominent sutures and raised warty bumps toward the distal end, sparsely to densely covered with unicellular and multicellular eglandular hairs, often with glandular-tipped multicellular hairs at the proximal end and on the pedicels near the sepals, or often scattered along the entire capsule. Seeds pale brown, 1.5-3 mm long; testa expanded, frayed on the ends, and dorsoventrally flattened, surrounding the body, the cells elongate. Link to reference follow: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237224879_Rhododendron_colemanii_A_New_Species_of_Deciduous_Azalea_Rhododendron_section_Pentanthera_Ericaceae_from_the_Coastal_Plain_of_Alabama_and_Georgia
Collector(s):