Recently, my good friend,
Keith Bradley, told me where I could find one of the rarest of our native azaleas. It grows in the Piedmont region of South Carolina and no where else in the world.
This gorgeous little beauty has a powerfully sweet fragrance that I could smell when I got out of my truck to walk into the woods. When I finally located the plants, there were only three of them, but they were each about 12-15 feet (3.5-4.5 meters) tall. Unfortunately, the flowers were either in deep shade or bright sunlight -- neither of which is conducive to decent photography. I ended up having to use a slave flash (which is my last resort) in order to capture the detail in the flowers.
According to a popular
native Rhododendron/Azalea website, "
Rhododendron eastmanii is a very rare species growing in only a few locations in two South Carolina counties. The current known population is on the order of only 500 plants. Only recently discovered, and its existence first published in November 1999 by Dr. Kathleen Kron and Mike Creel, this is the newest native azalea species."
I've been wanting to photograph this species for quite some time. Thanks to Keith, now I can take this one off my "life list".
