As I write this profile of the pinkster azalea, the Pinkster festival is just behind us.
The pinkster azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides), also known as the pinxterbloom azalea, pink azalea, or pinxter flower, is one of numerous vivid azaleas native to North America. This deciduous understory shrub, which belongs to the Ericaceae or blueberry family, grows in dappled woodlands from southern New England into the Southeast.
When I first learned about this native azalea from NYC-based botanist Marielle Anzelone, I immediately thought of the cultural celebration, which takes place in late spring. I wondered if there might be a connection.
The Flower and the Festival
Phenologically, there is a link between the festival and the flower. Pinkster, or Pinksteren (meaning Pentecost), was historically a Dutch Christian holiday that celebrated the Pentecost, which takes place 50 days after Easter. This falls roughly within the flowering period of R. periclymenoides, which blooms here between April and May.
Dutch settlers brought Pinkster to the region now called New York in the 17th century, where it eventually became known as an African celebration, as local historian Lavada Nahon explained in a recent discussion of the Pinkster legacy. Today, Pinkster is considered the oldest African American holiday.
Many of the people who were kidnapped, enslaved, and brought to the Dutch colony of New Netherland were from Congo and Angola, and were already Christian, Nahon noted. They celebrated Pentecost, and the rare seasonal time off allowed to them, in Pinkster gatherings with other enslaved and free Africans—“in their own style, using their instruments, their foods, their gatherings.”
Flowers are woven into this history. In the Dutch celebration, white children were draped with flowers and called “pinksterbloemetje” or “pinkster flower,” according to The Pinkster King and the King of Kongo by Jeroen Dewulf. This phrase persisted in the common name of R. periclymenoides, which became one of a few different flowers associated with Pinkster here (the blue flag, or Iris versicolor, was also known as a “pinkster bloom”).
Capitol Hill in Albany was said to be covered in “pinxter flowers” during early Pinkster celebrations. Dewulf notes that the next colonial power, Britain, referred to the Pinkster festival’s flower as the “pink azalea," and the pinkster azalea is referenced today as the “official Pinkster bloom.”
“Various wild flowers were known as Pinkster blossoms,” reads a 1908 article from Brooklyn newspaper The Standard Union, “but the beautiful wild azalea, which blooms plentifully on Long Island in May, was, and is, universally known as the Pinkster flower, or Pinkster bloom, and it is still called by the old Dutch residents Pinkster blummachee.”
Pinkster was banned by Albany lawmakers in 1811 amid enslaver fears of rebellion. But revivals have become popular in recent decades, and took place this spring at the Lefferts Historic House, Van Cortlandt Park, and other locations around New York City.
Identifying the Pinkster
The pinkster is one of the first of the native azaleas to flower in spring, blooming before its bright-green oblong leaves emerge.
The vibrancy of the pinkster bloom does not come across in herbarium specimens. (Note: I have not seen this plant in the wild.) North Carolina Extension describes the flowers as “clusters of soft pink (often cotton candy pink) to white to lavender, slightly fragrant, funnel-shaped flowers,” each with five curved stamens and five petals.
Rhododendron periclymenoides has many common names, two of which—wild-honeysuckle and purple-honeysuckle—might help you identify it. It’s said that the flowers of the pinkster azalea resemble those of Lonicera periclymenum, or the European honeysuckle.
So what makes R. periclymenoides an azalea? Azaleas are a subcategory of rhododendrons. One way to distinguish the two is by the number of stamens (the male reproductive part of a flower). A rhododendron flower has ten stamens, while the flower of an azalea has five.
Henry David Thoreau coveted the pinkster azalea (or “pinxter-flower”), writes Allison Cusick of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. In late May of 1853, Thoreau sought out a local hunter named George Melvin to find the flowers, which he picked from along the Assabet River in Massachusetts. The specimen is now part of the Harvard University Herbaria.
Local Ecology
In the wild, the pinkster azalea can be found growing near plants like mountain-laurel (Kalmia latifolia), flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), and highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum). In 1985, it was announced as the official wildflower of Staten Island in the Staten Island Advance. (At the time, it was known as Rhododendron nudiflorum.)
In an article about the winning flower, Staten Islander Beatrice Hermasen recalled “fond memories of all the wooded areas beautiful with the spring blooming of the pink azaleas.”
The pinkster azalea is said to attract bees, hummingbirds, and swallowtail butterflies. A gall midge, Dasineura praecox, deposits its eggs in the flower buds of the azalea. Exobasidium azaleae, a fungus, can cause apple-shaped galls on the plant’s leaves. These “apples” are reportedly edible. Kathie Hodge, a mycologist at Cornell University, describes the apple-like plant tissue as “big and juicy and a little sweet.”
Hodge adds an asterisk, however—rhododendrons are notoriously poisonous. Many plants in the Ericaceae family produce grayanotoxins, which can affect the cardiovascular and nervous systems when ingested.
Growing the Pinkster
The pinkster azalea is a favorite of Will Lenihan, Native Flora gardener at BBG (and Staten Islander). It’s a little picky about where it grows, however, and he doesn’t recommend it as a reliable urban shrub.
“I would love to see more people experiment with cultivating it, but you have to accept that it might die fairly easily in the wrong spot,” says Lenihan.
Your best shot at growing it is on a moist but well-draining, east-facing slope that gets morning sun but is protected from too much direct afternoon sun, with a lot of acidic organic material in the soil.
At Brooklyn Botanic Garden, R. periclymenoides can be found in the Native Flora Garden and the Shelby White and Leon Levy Water Garden. To see this plant growing in the wild in New York City, check out High Rock Park and Blue Heron Park in Staten Island.
FURTHER READING
Pinkster’s Legacy: A Zoom Discussion with Lavada Nahon and Chief Baba Neil Clark, Van Cortlandt Park Alliance
The Pinkster King and the King of Kongo: The Forgotten History of America's Dutch-Owned Slaves, by Jeroen Dewulf
Towards Broader Adaptability of North American Deciduous Azaleas, Arnoldia, Arnold Arboretum
Wildflower in Focus: Pinxter Flower, Maryland Native Plant Society
Rhododendron periclymenoides, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Native Azaleas, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
