Rhododendron canadense, the rhodora[1] or Canada rosebay,[2] is a deciduous flowering shrub that is native to northeastern North America.

The wild distribution of the rhodora begins at its easternmost extreme in Canada in Newfoundland and extends into eastern Ontario and the United States, where it has its most famous home in New England and also occurs naturally in New York, New Jersey, and at high altitudes in the Appalachian Mountains further south to Pennsylvania.

The Transcendentalist writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, who spent his life in Concord, Massachusetts, paid homage to it in his poem "The Rhodora: On Being Asked Whence Is the Flower" (1834, published 1847).

In this reflective lyric, the poet arrives at the epiphany that the beauty of the rhodora exists not only for its own sake but also discloses the mystical unity of all creation under God.

Rhodora is also the name of the journal of the Harvard-affiliated New England Botanical Society, which is a peer reviewed scientific publication dedicated to the flora of North America.