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Rhododendron macrophyllum

species of plant

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionNov 11, 2025
Entity authorityQ2714739 ↗
Source-derived summary

Rhododendron macrophyllum, also known as the Pacific rhododendron, California rose bay, California rhododendron, coast rhododendron or big leaf rhododendron, is a large-leaved species of Rhododendron native to the Pacific Coast of North America. It is the state flower of Washington.

Description

It is an evergreen shrub growing up to 2–9 m (7–30 ft) tall. The leaves, retained for 2–3 years, are 7–23 cm (3–9 in) long and 3–7 cm (1–3 in) broad. The flowers are 2.8–4 cm (1.1–1.6 in) long, with five lobes on the corolla; color is usually pink, although variants exist.

Distribution

The northern limit of its range is somewhat north of the border between Canada and the United States in British Columbia. It is found as far south as Monterey Bay in California. It is widely distributed in the Coast Mountains and Cascade Range. It is less abundant in the coastal mountains of Washington and northern Oregon and more common south of the Siuslaw River. It is mostly coastal in distribution but extends its range eastward to locations in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Rhododendron macrophyllum” as species of plant. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewUseful for establishing the present vocabulary of the subject while preserving a route back to the evidence on which that vocabulary rests. The current 181-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Rhododendron, macrophyllum and species can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of plant. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 11, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2714739. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

Current terminology should not be projected backward without checking the classification used when the underlying evidence was created. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Rhododendron macrophyllum”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Rhododendron macrophyllum primary sources, Rhododendron macrophyllum archive and Rhododendron research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Rhododendron macrophyllum” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.