Some people have wanted to completely "repackage" the rhododendron. The author of Dian Hai Yu Heng Zhi blundered into a forest of flowering rhododendrons in the Dian Mountains of Yunnan, and "passed ten leagues through the woods, the flowers tens of feet high crowding in like red clouds on either side. It was like entering a purple heaven, and we went the whole day before we emerged."
還有人想把杜鵑花好好徹底「改頭換面」，《滇海虞衡志》作者誤闖雲南滇山杜鵑花叢，「穿林數十裡，花高幾盈丈，紅雲夾輿，疑入紫霄，行彌日方出林。」