I really find it hard to pronounce the word "Rhododendron." This is actually a genus of the plant that belongs to
family Ericaceae. This genus is considered as big because it consists of more than 600 species, which are either evergreen or deciduous. These species have recognized for having showy flowers. Being a large group, it is subdivided into four groups namely Subgenus Rhododendron, Subgenus Hymenanthes, evergreen azaleas, and deciduous azaleas. Subgenus Rhododendron have the presence of scales on the leaves' underside while Subgenus Hymenanthes lacks these scales. This genus is widely distributed but mainly found in Sino-Himalayan mountains of southeast Asia. There is also other significant areas like in the mountains of Indo-China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan. There are several species that grow in North American region and in Europe.
According to experiments, most species of Rhododendron like acidic soil conditions. The best known species of this genus are noticed because of the many clusters of large trumpet-shaped blooms and glossy oval leaves. However, alpine species have small flowers or small leaves. Accordingly, this flower is named as Nepal's National flower. It is also the state
flower of Washington and West Virginia of US and Sikkim of India.
