Flame Azalea

Flame Azalea is widely considered the most spectacular of all native North American azaleas, producing brilliant flowers ranging from yellow to deep orange-red in late spring that William Bartram described as 'the most gay and brilliant flowering shrub yet known.' It is a deciduous shrub of the Appalachian highlands, typically blooming around or just after leaf-out. Unlike most rhododendrons, azaleas have sticky-glandular flower tubes and longer, exserted stamens. It is a parent of many cultivated azalea hybrids and is particularly abundant in the Great Smoky Mountains.