| Bejaria, found in South America, Central America, Mexico, W Cuba, and SE USA, is recognized as having fifteen species. Past workers relied heavily on characters of the indumentun, but observations in the field show that indumentum is very variable within populations and to some extent on individuals. Floral characters are found to be more consistent and are used to characterize species or species groups. Five distinct corolla shapes are seen. They are: spreading or bell-shaped, trumpet-shaped, tube-shaped, cup-shaped, and funnel-shaped. Analysis of wood anatomy showed tremendous variation within species in quantitative characters. Furthermore, there are quantitative changes with the age of the wood, therefore studies of wood anatomy in the Rhododendroideae that do not take into account this variation may be suspect. Flavonoid aglycone and flavonoid glycoside spot-patterns showed much the same variation as was found with the wood. |
