Marsh Labrador tea in Polissia
Rhododendron tomentosum
Caution: poisonous; the smell of its essential oil causes headaches and dizziness
Marsh Labrador tea is an evergreen shrub up to a metre tall. Its leaves are narrow and leathery with rolled edges, covered underneath with reddish hairs. The young twigs are also rusty and felted. In May–June the shrub is covered with fragrant white flowers gathered in corymbs.
It grows on raised and transitional sphagnum bogs and in swampy pine woods. In Polissia it is abundant in the Rivne and Polissia nature reserves, on the Cheremske bog and on other large bogs of Rivne region, Volyn and Zhytomyr region.
The whole plant contains an essential oil with a pungent smell. On a hot, windless day in a thicket of Labrador tea you may get a headache and feel dizzy. It was once used against moths and insects.
Marsh Labrador tea is poisonous. Do not chew the leaves, do not make tea from them and do not put bunches of it in a closed room. If you feel dizzy on a bog, move to an open place and rest.
When to see: flowers in May–June; the smell is strongest in hot weather
Where it was seen in Polissia
Observations from the open scientific database GBIF since 1990.
More in “Plants”
Bilberry
Polissia's most widespread forest berry, forming continuous carpets under the pines.
Bog bilberry
A bog berry similar to the bilberry but with white flesh; it grows on Polissia's bogs next to marsh Labrador tea.
Round-leaved sundew
A small insect-eating plant of sphagnum bogs whose leaves are covered in sticky droplets.
Eastern pasqueflower
An early spring flower of Polissia's pine forests with fluffy violet bells; it is protected.