Paintings in the Chinese bird-and-flower tradition include even such subjects as the medicinal berries of the Chinese matrimony-vine (Lycium chinense). Yet despite the fact that the rhododendrons form China's largest genus of flowering plants, not a single painting of a rhododendron appears in the 15 weighty volumes of Calligraphy and Paintings of the National Palace Museum. It seems the cuckoo flower is just too inauspicious.
中國花鳥畫裡，連被入藥的枸杞子都留下了畫像，故宮博物院出版的十五大本《故宮書畫圖錄》，中國第一大屬的顯花植物杜鵑花，許是太不祥了，竟未出現一紙半張。