What plant is the big white rhododendron? Let us introduce you to this flowering plant
It belongs to the subsection Fortunea within the group of evergreen scaleless rhododendrons. Evergreen shrub to small tree. Young branches stout, green, initially covered with white powder. Leaves thickly leathery, clustered at the tips of branches; oblong or long elliptic, 7-17 cm long, 3-6 cm wide; apex obtuse and rounded, with a small mucro; leaf surface green, underside pale green. Flowers from April to June; terminal racemose corymb, the rachis about 3 cm long, with glands; 8-10 flowers, gathered into a spherical cluster up to 20 cm in diameter; corolla funnel-shaped campanulate, 6-8 lobed, 3-5 cm long, the lobe tips nearly rounded with a slight notch, hairy at the base inside the tube; flowers white, pink or rose-colored, sometimes with pale green or pink dots, fragrant; both the pedicels and the corolla have glands. Stamens 12-16, ovary 10-locular, the style and ovary densely covered with glands. Capsule oblong, 4 cm long, ripening in September.
This species is found in Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou, in hillside shrub thickets at altitudes of 1000-3000 m. The big white rhododendron, also known as big white flower and white flower tree, is a traditional edible vegetable in the ethnic minority regions of Yunnan and Sichuan. After the stamens are removed from the fresh flowers, they are blanched in boiling water, rinsed in clean water and can then be stir-fried or used as an ingredient in soup. They can also be dried and stored, then soaked in water until soft before eating. According to measurements, the dried flowers contain 17 amino acids, making their nutritional value extremely high.