Common rhododendron

Rhododendron ponticum · The common rhododendron is a dense, evergreen flowering shrub native to the Iberian Peninsula and the Caucasus region.

Also called Pontic rhododendron.

Common rhododendron
Photo: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)., CC BY-SA 4.0
Common rhododendron
Photo: Dominicus Johannes Bergsma., CC BY-SA 4.0
Common rhododendron
Photo: Duartefrade, CC BY-SA 3.0

Taxonomy

KingdomPlantae
PhylumTracheophyta
ClassMagnoliopsida
OrderEricales
FamilyEricaceae
GenusRhododendron
SpeciesRhododendron ponticum

Where it lives

Native to the Iberian Peninsula and the Caucasus and Black Sea coast of Turkey; invasive in western Europe.

Fun facts

  • Honey made from this plant's flower pollen is called "mad honey" and can be poisonous in large amounts because of toxins called grayanotoxins.
  • Mad honey even plays a significant part in the 2023 film A Haunting in Venice.
  • Gardeners often use this rhododendron as a rootstock, grafting showier rhododendrons onto it.
  • In Britain it has been so successful that it can smother entire hillsides, especially in Snowdonia and western Scotland.

Play it

The Common rhododendron was the plant in the Plant daily on November 13, 2026. Can you identify tomorrow's from its photos? Every day brings a new creature to place from kingdom to genus, map and name.

Play today's creature or replay a past daily

Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).