Deciduous Species

There are seventeen varieties of North American Native Azaleas: They are divided into three groups–white, pink, and orange-to-red.

Much of the material shown below was assembled by Don Hyatt, George McLellan, and Dr. Sandra McDonald and presented at a 2000 ARS Convention lecture and subsequently published in the Journal of the American Rhododendron Society.

Click on any of the “accordions” to open. Clicking on the distribution maps, and on some of the images, will bring up larger versions.

Many of these species may coexist in nature. Over time, there has been a good deal of natural hybridization—making taxonomy difficult at best. Charles Andrews, VP of the the Azalea Society, presented an excellent overview of natural hybrids in 2018. Attached is a copy of that presentation in PDF format (9Mb).

Natural Hybridization w notes 2018 10 19-1


The White Group

The Pink Group

The Orange to Red Group

 

To learn more about deciduous native azaleas

To read more about these plants, the following are recommended: