The Dawes Arboretum

Common name: pinxterbloom azalea, election-pink

Family: Ericaceae (heath family)

Synonym: Rhododendron nudiflorum

Distribution: e. United States

IUCN Red list: Least concern

Regional red list: Ohio Threatened Species

Hardiness: USDA Zone 4

Life form: Deciduous shrub/Subshrub

Comments: A medium-sized deciduous azalea, native to Ohio. It has bright green leaves in summer changing to bronze-red in the fall. In May it produces lightly fragrant, funnel-shaped flowers in clusters. They are typically pale pink with a reddish tube. The male floral parts (stamens) extend three times longer than the tube. It is stoloniferous (having stems at the ground which root at their tips) in its native habitat of moist-to-dry open woods and is very hardy.