Kalmia

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Kalmia
Kalmia latifolia.jpg
Kalmia latifolia
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Ericaceae
Subfamily: Ericoideae
Tribe: Phyllodoceae
Genus: Kalmia
L.
Species

See text

Synonyms

LoiseleuriaDesv.

Kalmia is a genus of about ten species of evergreen shrubs from 0.2–5 m tall, in the family Ericaceae (heath). They are native to North America (mainly in the eastern half of the continent) and Cuba. They grow in acidic soils, with different species in wet acid bog habitats (K. angustifolia, K. polifolia) and dry, sandy soils (K. ericoides, K. latifolia).

Kalmia was named by Linnaeus to honour his friend the botanist Pehr Kalm, who collected it in eastern North America during the mid-18th century. Earlier, Mark Catesby saw it during his travels in Carolina, and after his return to England in 1726, imported seeds. He described it, a costly rarity, in his Natural History of Carolina, as Chamaedaphne foliis tini, that is to say "with leaves like the Laurustinus"; the botanist and plant-collector Peter Collinson, who had begged some of the shrub from his correspondent John Custis in Virginia, wrote, when his plants flowered, that "I Really Think it exceeds the Laurus Tinus." [1]

Mountain laurel blooms showing the conjoined petals Mountain laurel blooms (5940253290).jpg
Mountain laurel blooms showing the conjoined petals

The leaves are 2–12 cm long and simple lanceolate. The flowers are white, pink or purple, in corymbs of 10–50, reminiscent of Rhododendron flowers but flatter, with a star-like calyx of five conjoined petals; each flower is 1–3 cm diameter. The fruit is a five-lobed capsule, which splits to release the numerous small seeds.

The foliage contains grayanotoxins, a group of closely related neurotoxins named after Leucothoe grayana, native to Japan, [2] so it is toxic if eaten, with sheep being particularly prone to poisoning, hence the name lambkill used for some of the species. Other names for Kalmia, particularly Kalmia angustifolia, are sheep-laurel, lamb-kill, calf-kill, kill-kid, and sheep-poison, [3] which may be written with or without the hyphen. (See species list below.) "Kid" here refers to a young goat, not a human child, but the foliage and twigs are toxic to humans as well.

It has also been called spoonwood because Kalm was told by Dutch settlers of North America that Native Americans made spoons from the wood. [4] Given its toxicity, this may be folklore rather than scientific fact.

Kalmias are popular garden shrubs, grown for their decorative flowers. They should not be planted where they are accessible to livestock due to the toxicity.

Kalmia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some lepidopteran species including Coleophora kalmiella which feeds exclusively on Kalmia.

Species

Kalmia microphylla Kalmia microphylla 0602.JPG
Kalmia microphylla

Species and subspecies listed by Plants of the World Online: [5]

Kalmia procumbens was treated as the only species in the genus Loiseleuria in older floras. [6] [7] The related Kalmiopsis leachiana and K. fragrans are rare shrubs endemic to southwest Oregon. [8]

Fossil record

Fossil leaves of †Kalmia saxonica have been described from the Lower Miocene of Brandis, Germany and Bełchatów, Poland, †'Kalmia marcodurensis have been described from the Lower Miocene of Bitterfeld, Germany. In the Late Tertiary Kalmia was associated with coal-forming vegetation occurring as a component of the vegetation of bush swamps together with Cyrilla and other shrubs. Among recent species Kalmia angustifolia is most similar to †Kalmia saxonica in respect of morphology, while Kalmia latifolia has a very similar epidermal structure. These two extant species grow in the eastern part of North America from (Quebec to Florida) on acid swampy or marshy soils. [9]

Bibliography

Books

Related Research Articles

<i>Kalmia latifolia</i> Species of plant

Kalmia latifolia, the mountain laurel, calico-bush, or spoonwood, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae, that is native to the eastern United States. Its range stretches from southern Maine south to northern Florida, and west to Indiana and Louisiana. Mountain laurel is the state flower of Connecticut and Pennsylvania. It is the namesake of Laurel County in Kentucky, the city of Laurel, Mississippi, and the Laurel Highlands in southwestern Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mer Bleue Bog</span>

Mer Bleue Bog is a 33.43 km2 (12.91 sq mi) protected area in Gloucester, Ontario, an eastern suburb of Ottawa in Eastern Ontario, Canada. Its main feature is a sphagnum bog that is situated in an ancient channel of the Ottawa River and is a remarkable boreal-like ecosystem normally not found this far south. Stunted black spruce, tamarack, bog rosemary, blueberry, and cottongrass are some of the unusual species that have adapted to the acidic waters of the bog.

<i>Gaultheria</i> Genus of flowering plants

Gaultheria is a genus of about 283 species of shrubs in the family Ericaceae. The name commemorates Jean François Gaultier of Quebec, an honour bestowed by the Scandinavian Pehr Kalm in 1748 and taken up by Carl Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum. These plants are native to Asia, Australasia and North and South America. In the past, the Southern Hemisphere species were often treated as the separate genus Pernettya, but no consistent reliable morphological or genetic differences support recognition of two genera, and they are now united in the single genus Gaultheria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Highstead Foundation</span>

Highstead, formerly known as Highstead Arboretum, in Redding, Connecticut, United States was founded in 1982. It covers 36 acres of woodland, meadow, and wetland and ranges from 640 feet (200 m) to 758 feet (231 m) in elevation and hosts both native and cultivated plant varieties.

<i>Andromeda polifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Andromeda polifolia, common name bog-rosemary, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae, native to northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. It is the only member of the genus Andromeda, and is only found in bogs in cold peat-accumulating areas. Andromeda glaucophylla is a synonym of A. polifolia var. latifolia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic coastal pine barrens</span> Temperate coniferous forest ecoregion of Northeast United States

The Atlantic coastal pine barrens is a now rare temperate coniferous forest ecoregion of the Northeast United States distinguished by unique species and topographical features, generally nutrient-poor, often acidic soils and a pine tree distribution once controlled by frequent fires.

<i>Xerophyllum asphodeloides</i> Species of flowering plant

Xerophyllum asphodeloides is a North American species of flowering plants in the Melanthiaceae known by the common names turkey beard, eastern turkeybeard, beartongue, grass-leaved helonias, and mountain asphodel. It is native to the eastern United States, where it occurs in the southern Appalachian Mountains from Virginia to Alabama, and also in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.

<i>Rhododendron groenlandicum</i> Species of flowering plant

Rhododendron groenlandicum is a flowering shrub with white flowers and evergreen leaves that is used to make a herbal tea.

<i>Kalmia polifolia</i> Species of shrub

Kalmia polifolia, previously known as Kalmia glauca and commonly called bog laurel, swamp laurel, or pale laurel, is a perennial evergreen shrub of cold acidic bogs, in the family Ericaceae. It is native to north-eastern North America, from Newfoundland to Hudson Bay southwards.

<i>Kalmia angustifolia</i> Species of shrub

Kalmia angustifolia is a flowering shrub in the family Ericaceae, commonly known as sheep laurel. It is distributed in eastern North America from Ontario and Quebec south to Virginia. It grows commonly in dry habitats in the boreal forest, and may become dominant over large areas after fire or logging. Like many plant species of infertile habitats it has evergreen leaves and mycorrhizal associations with fungi. It is also found in drier areas of peat bogs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New England–Acadian forests</span> Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion of Canada and the United States

The New England-Acadian forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion in North America that includes a variety of habitats on the hills, mountains and plateaus of New England and New York State in the Northeastern United States, and Quebec and the Maritime Provinces of Eastern Canada.

<i>Kalmia microphylla</i> Species of flowering plant

Kalmia microphylla, known as alpine laurel, bog laurel, swamp-laurel, western bog-laurel or western laurel, is a species of Kalmia of the family Ericaceae. It is native to North America and can be found throughout the western US and western and central Canada below the subarctic.

<i>Kalmia procumbens</i> Species of shrub

Kalmia procumbens, commonly known as alpine azalea or trailing azalea, is a dwarf shrub of high mountain regions of the Northern Hemisphere that usually grows no more than 10 centimeters (4 in) tall. Originally named by Linnaeus as Azalea procumbens, it is also named after French botanist L.L.A. Loiseleur-Deslongchamps - Loiseleuria procumbens.

<i>Gaylussacia frondosa</i> Berry and plant

Gaylussacia frondosa is a species of flowering plant in the heath family known by the common names dangleberry and blue huckleberry. It is native to the eastern United States, where it occurs from New Hampshire to South Carolina.

<i>Kalmia buxifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Kalmia buxifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae known by the common name sandmyrtle, or sand-myrtle. It is native to the mid-Atlantic and southeastern United States, where it has a disjunct distribution, occurring in three separate areas. It is known from the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, the Coastal Plain of the Carolinas, and the southeastern Blue Ridge Mountains.

<i>Vaccinium oxycoccos</i> Species of flowering plant

Vaccinium oxycoccos is a species of flowering plant in the heath family. It is known as small cranberry, marshberry, bog cranberry, swamp cranberry, or, particularly in Britain, just cranberry. It is widespread throughout the cool temperate northern hemisphere, including northern Europe, northern Asia and northern North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twin Lakes Bog State Natural Area</span> State Natural Area in Wisconsin

Twin Lakes Bog State Natural Area is a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources-designated State Natural Area featuring an intact tamarack swamp lying in a depression between two kettle lakes. The understory of the swamp has an open aspect to it, and is dominated by the ericaceous shrubs Labrador tea, bog laurel, and leatherleaf. Other common plant species found here include: wooly-fruit Sedge, twinflower, cinnamon fern, sundews and, and the notably abundant pink ladyslipper. Three small bog lakes, surrounded by quaking bog mats, are found in the interior of the swamp. Uplands surrounding the swamp are forested with second-growth hardwoods dominated by sugar maple and red oak. In 1989, the US Forest Service designated Twin Lakes Bog as a Research Natural Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Bog</span>

The Alfred Bog is a domed peat bog in Eastern Ontario, Canada, about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) south of Alfred and 70 kilometres (43 mi) east of Ottawa. The bog is considered the largest high-quality bog in Southern Ontario, and was designated by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources as a "Class 1 Wetland" and an "Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI)" in 1984. It is home to rare animal species and a healthy moose population.

References

  1. Alice M. Coats, Garden Shrubs and Their Histories (1964) 1992, s.v. "Kalmia".
  2. Senning A (2007). Elsevier's Dictionary of Chemoetymology. Amsterdam: Elsevier. p. 170. ISBN   978-0-444-52239-9.
  3. Natural History Education, Science, Technology regarding alternate names, accessed March 30, 2007.
  4. Plants of Colonial Days by Raymond Leech Taylor, p. 61. (1996) ISBN   0-486-29404-8. Accessed March 30, 2007.
  5. "Kalmia L." Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  6. "Kalmia procumbens in Flora of North America @ efloras.org". www.efloras.org. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
  7. "Kalmia procumbens (Alpine-azalea): Go Botany". gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
  8. "Kalmiopsis Rehder". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  9. Acta Palaeobotanica - Supplementum No. 3 - New Fossil Floras from Neogene Deposits in the Bełchatów Lignite Mine by Grzegor Worobiec - Polish Academy of Sciences, W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Krakow 2003