Rhododendron minus var. smokianum
R. smokianum (minus var. minus forma smokianum) (nu en selvstændig art) a dwarf plant, rarely over 0.5 meters high. It has small purple flowers and as far as I know it does not have a varietal distinction. The foliage looks more like R. keiskei than R. carolinianum or R. minus. It grows basically on cliffs and very well drained slopes on just a few of the highest mountains in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, between 1500 to 1900 meters. It has a very small natural area of distribution. Its flowers are small, rarely over 2 cm across, and the color range is primarily in the purple range with some forms that are lavender and other deep rose pink. We have never seen any lighter colors or whites. It blooms much later than any of the others…at the same time as Kalmia and at the beginning of R. maximum‘s bloom time.
Don Hyatt
Ron Miller has given it that name since it seems to reside just at high elevations (1800 to 1900 m) in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. As far as the taxonomists are concerned, they think it is just R. minus and they don’t even give a varietal distinction. When we see the isolated range, how it grows (happiest on 90 degree rock faces so it obviously needs good drainage), the time of bloom in late June or July which is at least 6 weeks after R. minus var. carolinianum at the same altitude, and the color range from rose to purple instead of white to lavender pink, we disagree. Smokianum have been described in JARS 68(4) 2014.
Don Hyatt
● R. minus / R. carolinianum
● R. minus
● R. minus var. chapmanii
● R. minus var. smokianum ARS19-315 frø. Foto: Hans Eiberg
ARS
Flora of North America
RBGE Herbarium; R. minus
Herbarium Florida