Kalmia polifolia

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Kalmia polifolia
Kalmia polifolia 2.jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Ericaceae
Genus: Kalmia
Species:
K. polifolia
Binomial name
Kalmia polifolia
Synonyms [1]
Chamaedaphne glauca[ citation needed ]

Kalmia glauca

Kalmia polifolia, previously known as Kalmia glauca [1] and commonly called bog laurel, swamp laurel, [2] or pale laurel, is a perennial [3] evergreen shrub of cold acidic bogs, in the family Ericaceae. It is native to north-eastern North America, from Newfoundland to Hudson Bay southwards.

Contents

Etymology

The genus 'Kalmia' is named after Pehr Kalm, a Swedish-Finn botanist, who was a student of Linnaeus. The species name, 'polifolia', is Latin for 'pole-leaves' or 'pole-petals'.

The former species name, 'glauca', is Latin for gleaming or gray, a word ultimately derived from the Ancient Greek 'γλαυκός', meaning blue-green or blue-gray.

History

The plant was first described by Friedrich Adam Julius von Wangenheim, a German botanist.

Environment

Kalmia polifolia is common throughout Northern North American, [1] thriving along the Eastern American states and in Montana, as well as in every Canadian province except in British Columbia, [3] although spottings have been reported of Kalmia polifolia at Rhododenron Lake, located near Vancouver Island. [4] [5] Within Canada, Kalmia polifolia is very commonly found in east Nova Scotia where bog conditions are more frequent. [6] Kalmia polifolia has also been spotted in a bog in Surrey, England. [1]

Description

On foggy days its nearly cupped blossoms are filled with dew. The anthers on some are bent back and held by their tips in pits in the petals. When an insect disturbs the anthers they whip up, spraying the intruder with pollen

—John A. Murray, The Mountain Reader [7]

Kalmia polifolia flowers in April and is pollinated by bees. [1] Bees, however, after pollinating this plant, produce a poison honey. [8] Its seeds ripen in September. [1] These seeds are five-parted, round, and woody. [9]

Kalmia polifolia can grow to be two feet tall. Its leaves are arranged oppositely upon its branch and grow to be an inch to an inch and a half in length and tend to be waxy with an entire and revolute margin. [9] Below each leaf base there are ridges, where it appears as though a part of the leaf is curled around the circumference of the stem. This is especially noticeable lower on the plant.

The base of the petiole is pressed against the stem as its flowers cluster in a single terminal bunch, which appears to be pink or purple in colour; the near cup-shaped flower spans about three-eighths of an inch in diameter. [9]

Uses

The near cup-shaped flower spans about three-eighths of an inch in diameter. Bog laurel (Kalmia polifolia) (23945002063).jpg
The near cup-shaped flower spans about three-eighths of an inch in diameter.

As medicine

Kalmia polifolia can be used topically for skin wounds, disease, and inflammation, while internal uses may address bleeding and diarrhoea. [1]

As poison

Every part of Kalmia polifolia is highly toxic and poisonous to animals and persons. [8] Although related to Kalmia angustifolia (lambkill), it is less toxic.

Certain indigenous groups have used the toxicity of the plant's leaves to commit suicide. [1]

According to Alaback et al., Kalmia polifolia contains a grayanotoxin, which when ingested lowers blood pressure, and may cause respiratory problems, dizziness, vomiting, or diarrhea. [10] According to Lewis and Elvin-Lewis, the active compounds within Kalmia polifolia include andromedotoxin and arbutin. These compounds cause a slowing of pulse, a lowering of blood pressure, progressive paralysis and death. [11] Kalmia polifolia has poisoned cattle, goats and sheep. For poisoning to occur, the animal must consume 0.3% of its body weight, while a dosage of 2% of an[ vague ] would cause severe sickness. [8]

Symptoms for affected goats include depression, nausea, salivation, vomiting, and grating of teeth. [8]

Symptoms for affected sheep include depression, staggering, nausea, recubency, salivation, and vomiting. [8]

As food

While caribou do not have specialized food habits, they can eat most plants - preferring fungi, green leaves of deciduous shrubs, and new spring growth of sedges. They often eat Kalmia polifolia in the spring and summer; the plant comprises 11% of their dietary dry-matter protein. [12]

For aesthetics

Kalmia polifolia was planted in Montreal's First Nation Garden, among another 300 species planted. [13]

Related Research Articles

Ericaceae The heather family of flowering plants

The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acid and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c. 4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it the 14th most species-rich family of flowering plants. The many well known and economically important members of the Ericaceae include the cranberry, blueberry, huckleberry, rhododendron, and various common heaths and heathers.

<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.

Grayanotoxins are a group of closely related neurotoxins named after Leucothoe grayana, a plant native to Japan originally named for 19th century American botanist Asa Gray. Grayanotoxin I is also known as andromedotoxin, acetylandromedol, rhodotoxin and asebotoxin. Grayanotoxins are produced by Rhododendron species and other plants in the family Ericaceae. Honey made from the nectar and so containing pollen of these plants also contains grayanotoxins and is commonly referred to as mad honey. Consumption of the plant or any of its secondary products, including mad honey, can cause a rare poisonous reaction called grayanotoxin poisoning, mad honey disease, honey intoxication, or rhododendron poisoning. It is most frequently produced and consumed in regions of Nepal and Turkey as a recreational drug and traditional medicine.

<i>Ranunculus</i> Genus of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae

Ranunculus is a large genus of about 600 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots.

<i>Kalmia</i> Genus of flowering plants in the heath family Ericaceae

Kalmia is a genus of about ten species of evergreen shrubs from 0.2–5 m tall, in the family Ericaceae. They are native to North America and Cuba. They grow in acidic soils, with different species in wet acid bog habitats and dry, sandy soils.

<i>Nerium</i> Species of plant

Nerium oleander, most commonly known as oleander or nerium, is a shrub or small tree cultivated worldwide in temperate and subtropical areas as an ornamental and landscaping plant. It is the only species currently classified in the genus Nerium, belonging to subfamily Apocynoideae of the dogbane family Apocynaceae. It is so widely cultivated that no precise region of origin has been identified, though it is usually associated with the Mediterranean Basin.

<i>Mercurialis perennis</i> Species of flowering plant in the spurge family Euphorbiaceae

Mercurialis perennis, commonly known as dog's mercury, is a poisonous woodland plant found in much of Europe as well as in Algeria, Iran, Turkey, and the Caucasus, but almost absent from Ireland, Orkney and Shetland. A member of the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae), it is a herbaceous, downy perennial with erect stems bearing simple, serrate leaves. The dioecious inflorescences are green, bearing inconspicuous flowers from February to April. It characteristically forms dense, extensive carpets on the floor of woodlands and beneath hedgerows.

<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.

<i>Holodiscus discolor</i> Species of flowering plant

Holodiscus discolor, commonly known as ocean spray or oceanspray, creambush, or ironwood, is a shrub of western North America.

<i>Lobelia cardinalis</i> Species of flowering plant

Lobelia cardinalis, the cardinal flower, is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae native to the Americas, from southeastern Canada south through the eastern and southwestern United States, Mexico and Central America to northern Colombia.

<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 area of peat bogs.

<i>Calotropis gigantea</i> Species of plant

Calotropis gigantea, the crown flower, is a species of Calotropis native to Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, China, Pakistan, Nepal, and tropical Africa.

<i>Pieris japonica</i> Species of flowering plant

Pieris japonica, the Japanese andromeda or Japanese pieris, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae. It is native to eastern China, Taiwan, and Japan, where it grows in mountain thickets. This medium-sized evergreen shrub or tree is widely cultivated in gardens.

<i>Sambucus racemosa</i> Species of plant

Sambucus racemosa is a species of elderberry known by the common names red elderberry and red-berried elder.

<i>Rhododendron periclymenoides</i> Species of shrub

Rhododendron periclymenoides, the pink azalea or pinxter flower, is a species of shrub in the heath family Ericaceae. It is native to eastern North America, where it is widespread from Alabama to New Hampshire. It is often found in riparian areas, in wet to dry forests.

<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>Cicuta bulbifera</i> Species of plant

Cicuta bulbifera, commonly known as the bulb-bearing water-hemlock, is a plant native to North America and one of four species in the poisonous genus Cicuta. Tiny bulbils form in the leaf joints in the upper part of the plant, giving the plant its scientific and common names. Cicuta bulbifera can be distinguished from Cicuta douglasii by its narrow leaflet segments and its bulbil-bearing upper leaf axils.

<i>Vaccinium oxycoccos</i> Berry and plant

Vaccinium oxycoccos is a species of flowering plant in the heath family. It is known as small cranberry, 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.

<i>Gloriosa superba</i> Species of plant

Gloriosa superba is a species of flowering plant in the family Colchicaceae. Common names include flame lily, climbing lily, creeping lily, glory lily, gloriosa lily, tiger claw, agnishikha and fire lily.

<i>Oenanthe crocata</i> Species of flowering plant

Oenanthe crocata, the hemlock water-dropwort, is a flowering plant in the carrot family, Apiaceae, native to the British Isles, Western Europe and the Iberian Peninsula. All parts of the plant are extremely toxic and have been implicated in several cases of livestock poisoning.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Kalmia polifolia Swamp Laurel, Bog laurel PFAF Plant Database".
  2. ↑ "Kalmia polifolia". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  3. 1 2 "Plants Profile for Kalmia polifolia (bog laurel)".
  4. ↑ "Rhododendron Lake - Nanaimo Rhododendron Society".
  5. ↑ Hodgson, Lillian (1985). "Rhododendron Lake". Journal American Rhododendron Society. 39 (4).
  6. ↑ Roland, A. E., Smith, E. C.. 2007. The Flora of Nova Scotia. Nova Scotian Institute of Science.
  7. ↑ Murray, John A. (1 July 2000). The Mountain Reader. Globe Pequot. ISBN   9781585740222 – via Google Books.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 "Canadian Poisonous Plants Information System - Kalmia polifolia (Scientific name)". 2014-04-10.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Kalmia polifolia Fact Sheet".
  10. ↑ Paul Alaback, Joe Antos, Trevor Goward, Ken Lertzman, Andy MacKinnon, Jim Pojar, Rosamund Pojar, Andrew Reed, Nancy Turner, Dale Vitt (2004). Jim Pojar and Andy MacKinnon (ed.). Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast (Revised ed.). Vancouver: Lone Pine Publishing. p. 53. ISBN   978-1-55105-530-5.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ↑ Lewis, Walter H.; Elvin-Lewis, Memory P. F. (4 September 2003). Medical Botany: Plants Affecting Human Health. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN   9780471628828 – via Google Books.
  12. ↑ Bergerud, Arthur T. (1 January 1972). "Food Habits of Newfoundland Caribou". The Journal of Wildlife Management. 36 (3): 913–923. doi:10.2307/3799448. JSTOR   3799448.
  13. ↑ "Horticultural challenges in the First Nations Garden".
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