Wild rhododendrons!

[Tess]

I saw these while hiking yesterday! So pretty and they are everywhere!

 

[Marck]

Yes indeed, Pacific Big-leaf Rhododendrons (Rhododendron macrophyllum) are very beautiful. They extend from northern California up into British Columbia. This species is the only large-trussed elepidote Rhododendron in western North America. It is in Subsection Ponticum, along with the eastern North American R. catawbiense and R. maximum, and the well-known Pontic Rhododendron (R. ponticum) of Iberia, Anatolia, and the Caucasus, among others.

 

[Logan]

There's a wild one in the UK up in Scotland I think and it's a thug, it's very difficult to get rid of it.

 

[Marck]

Yes, Rhododendron ponticum is considered to be invasively naturalized in the British Isles, but even there it does put on a beautiful display.