On the outskirts of the small town of Chattahoochee, perched on hills overlooking the Apalachicola River, is Angus Gholson Nature Park, a piece of protected nature in an area where the bluffs slope down to the Apalachicola River. Not only were there many spring flowers to be admired at this time of year, but R. austrinum was also abundant on one of the slopes. The flower colors here were mostly bright orange-yellow with reddish hues. Due to Hurricane Michael, which had caused tremendous destruction in October 2018, many of the old trees had fallen and were still lying crisscrossed. It was therefore only with difficulty that I was able to work my way to the R. austrinum. They had not only already sprouted vigorously again in the areas of devastation due to the now suddenly very high light levels, but were also full of large and vigorous flower spikes. The azaleas simply overgrew the fallen trees, but they looked completely different in areas where the old trees were still standing. Here R. austrinum had only a few flowers and the plants made a rather weak impression.
