Abstract
Rhododendron mucronulatum for. albiflorum, native species is a shrub that has white flowers on May to June, and rare species endangered by people's rash digging or cutting. But its physiological ecological characteristics and propagation method are not being known at all. Therefore, this study was executed to utilize this species as the planting material for landscaping by analysing its habitat environment and growth form, and also experimenting its seed and vegetative propagation, and it field culture and utilization. The results are as follows; 1. The elevation, gradient and direction of this species were 295-1,350m, 10-36$^{\circ}$, northwest respectively. It was found that the species is shade-liking plant that grows under forest cover of average 51.33%. 2. The soil pH and water content of its habitat were 5.4, 25.41% respectively. The organic matter content was 6.29% that was higher than 3.2%, the average organic matter content of forest soil in Korea. 3. Representative plant community within which this species was living was Quercus mongolica community, and its main neighboring species were Lindea obtusiloba, Fraxinus sieboldiana, Rhus trichocarpa, Rhododendron Schlippenbachii, Rododendron mucronulatum. 4. The leaf length and width of this species were 39.18mm, 12.60mm respectively. This result showed that generally its leaf size was larger than that of R. micranthum, R. yedoense var. poukhanense and R. mucronulatum var. ciliatum and smaller than that of R. mucronulatum and R. schlippenbachii. 5. The whole size of its pollen was, as 59${\times}$61$\mu\textrm{m}$, the largest of plants of Rhododendron family including R. mucronulatum and R. mucronulatum var. ciliatum. 6. The result of seed germination experiment at intervals of 5$^{\circ}C$ from 15$^{\circ}C$ to 30$^{\circ}C$ presented the highest germination rate of 94.7% at 20$^{\circ}C$ numerically, but high percent germination at all temperature levels without significant difference. And the seed of this plant proved to be sun-liking seed at requiring dormancy in germination. 7. Through seed germination experiment by treatment of growth regulators such as GA. Thiourea and Kinetin under dark condition, it was found that the effect of GA treatment on germination increase and acceleration was the highest. 8. In greenwood cutting, rooted rate by treatment of various concentration of IBA and NAA on clay and vermiculite bed was not wholly high, but 100ppm plots of both IBA and NAA of clay bed showed relatively good rooted rate. 9. As result of field culture experiment for finding out optimum growth temperature and light intensity, growth conditions such as height, number of leaves, fresh weight and chlorophyll contents were the best at night/day temperature of 20/25$^{\circ}C$ and under 1/2sun. Also, the photosynthetic rate was the highest at 25$^{\circ}C$. Accordingly, it was found that optimum temperature and light intensity for growth of this plant are 25$^{\circ}C$ (day temperature), 50% of natural light respectively.
