| Author | Michaux | |
| Distribution | Nearly throughout the Mountains and the highest parts of the Piedmont foothills; also disjunct far eastward to the eastern Piedmont – east to Nash and Johnston counties. Absent from most of the central Piedmont, as well as nearly all of the Coastal Plain (including the Sandhills). May be absent from the extreme southwestern montane counties, as these (Cherokee, Clay, and Graham). There are numerous "new" counties where photographed on iNaturalist, but the editors are not including them without knowing if plants were in the wild in a native setting
This is a southern Appalachian endemic, ranging northward only to WV and western VA. It ranges southward to northeastern AL.
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| Abundance | Common over most of the Mountains, but very rare or absent in the extreme southwestern counties. Rare to locally uncommon in the foothills, and also rare and local in the Fall Line counties, where limited to steep north-facing slopes and bluffs. | |
| Habitat | It is found mostly at higher elevations (over 4000 feet) in rocky summits, heath balds, and upper slope and mountaintop forests, but also can occur at lower elevations on cooler forested slopes, always on acidic soils. In the Piedmont and upper Coastal Plain it is limited to the cool microclimates of steep, north-facing bluffs. |
| Phenology | Near the Fall Line it blooms from late April to mid-May; however, at higher elevations it bloom mostly from mid-May to late June. The peak bloom at Roan Mountain is around June 15-25. It fruits from July to October. | |
| Identification | This is a large evergreen shrub, usually 5-20 feet tall, often wider than tall. It can form fairly dense thickets. It is easily identified by its leaves, which are rounded at both ends and with somewhat parallel sides; the similar R. maximum has narrower leaves that are wider toward the tip and are gradually tapered to the base. Catawba Rhododendron has very large rose to magenta flowers, making it arguably the showiest of the state’s shrubs when in bloom – as witnessed by the large crowds that flock to Roan Mountain each June. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | A few references consider the disjunct Fall Line population as a separate, but unnamed, variety. However, this taxonomy seems not be popular at the present time; Weakley (2018) lists no varieties, whereas NatureServe does.
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| Other Common Name(s) | Mountain Rosebay, Catawba Rosebay, Purple Rhododendron, Purple Laurel, Rosebay Laurel, and several others. | |
| State Rank | S5 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FACU link |
| USACE-emp | FACU link |
