lu-KOTH-o-e gray-ahn-ah

• Deciduous to nearly evergreen shrub, slow growing, erect, 1.5-4 ft (~0.5-1.2 m) tall.  Leaves simple, alternate, oblong or ovate, about 4-9 cm long, tip acute, base tapering to rounded, margin with bristles, leathery, conspicuously veined below, very short petiole.  Flowers white to pinkish, about 5 mm, in erect, terminal, dropping clusters, 7-10 cm long; blooms in summer.
• Part shade to shade.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 6      Native to Japan.
• grayana: after Asa Gray (1810-1888), a leading American botanist in 19th century, the original author of Gray's Manual of Botany.
• Federal Way, Washington: Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden.