Norfolk Conservation Corps - More Information

The History of the Corps: The Story So Far, Volume 2
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Rhododendron is quite nice when in parks and gardens, but it becomes a menace when it escapes into the countryside, which is why we treat it so badly, though, in fact, our treatment is rather good.

Rhododendron ponticum, the species found all over Great Britain, is native to countries in the eastern and western Mediterranean, such as Spain, Portugal, and Turkey, and also occurs through Asia into China. It was first introduced into Britain in the late 18th century, and became particularly popular on country estates in Victorian times, these introductions mainly coming from Spain and Portugal.

It thrives in milder, wet climatic conditions on poor, acidic soils, and, because it thrives, it has to be kept permanently in check. At Felbrigg Hall, where we worked sixty mandays in 1978 and 1979 on clearing rhododendron from the beech woods, they had a head woodsman, who told us that, when he started working there as a boy, there were forty men on the woodland staff dealing with the fourteen hundred acres of beech woods. When he became head woodsman, forty years later, the staff under him consisted of one man and a boy, showing why the problems have arisen.

Rhododendron invades new areas by seed and by vegetative growth. Each flower head can produce up to seven thousand seeds, each bush producing several million seeds per year, seeds which are tiny and can be wind-dispersed over large areas. Rhododendron also spreads by creeping up on new areas. It has the power to grow laterally, and, wherever the horizontal branches touch the ground, they will put out roots, increasing the plants stability and ability to continue moving sideways. Thus, because of its extremely lateral form of growth, rhododendron plants are capable of extending into areas which are otherwise unsuitable. Large areas of wetland can thus be dominated by the canopy of rhododendron while the main stem and roots of the plant are still on suitably dry land.

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