A native plant of Spain, Portugal, and Turkey, it was first introduced to Britain and Ireland in the late 18th Century. It became popular on country estates in Victorian times, providing ornamental value as well as cover for game birds.
Why is Rhododendron ponticum a problem?
It is responsible for the destruction of many native habitats.
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It can grow to many times the height of a person, and will out-compete most native plants for food and resources, its dense foliage blocks sunlight, eliminating native plants growing beneath it.
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It is known as an Ecosystem Engineer, that is, it will significantly change the habitat it colonises, having detrimental affects for plants, animals, soils, water, and biodiversity.
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The plant is an aggressive coloniser, and will in time spread to dominate large areas if not controlled. The Mourne Heritage Trust has recorded the plant growing at heights of 400m above Ben Crom reservoir.
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Toxins, or phenols produced by the plant make young shoots and leaves unpalatable to grazing animals, and also build up in the top layer of the soil, further reducing the ability of native plants to grow.
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In parts of Britain and Ireland agricultural land has been lost to the spread of Rhododendron ponticum.
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The plant is particularly well adapted to colonise the acid heath land that covers the Mournes.
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Rhododendron ponticum spreads by lateral horizontal growth and by seed dispersal. A single plant can cover many metres of ground with impenetrable interlaced branches. Where these branches touch the ground they will take root, continually extending the plants cover.
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Its flowers can produce up to seven thousand seeds, a large bush producing up to a million seeds per year. The seeds can travel up to 1km on the wind. |
