structural:expansion, structural:summarization
In media

The nineteenth-century American poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1834 wrote a poem titled "The Rhodora, On Being Asked, Whence Is the Flower".

Rhododendrons play a role and are soliloquized in James Joyce 's Ulysses. The flowers are referenced throughout Daphne Du Maurier 's novel Rebecca (1938) and in Sharon Creech 's young adult novel Walk Two Moons (1994). British author Jasper Fforde also uses rhododendron as a motif throughout many of his books, e.g. the Thursday Next series and Shades of Grey (2009).

The effects of R. ponticum were mentioned in the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes as a proposed way to arrange a fake execution. It was also mentioned in the third episode of Season 2 of BBC's Sherlock, speculated to have been a part of Sherlock's fake death scheme.