''Kalmia'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of about ten

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

s from 0.2–5 m tall, in the family

Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...

. They are native to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

(mainly in the eastern half of the continent) and

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. They grow in

acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...

ic 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 Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

to honour his friend the botanist

Pehr Kalm Pehr Kalm (6 March 1716 – 16 November 1779), also known as Peter Kalm, was a Swedish explorer, botanist, naturalist, and agricultural economist. He was one of the most important apostles of Carl Linnaeus. In 1747, he was commissioned by the R ...

, who collected it in eastern North America during the mid-18th century. Earlier,

Mark Catesby Mark Catesby (24 March 1683 – 23 December 1749) was an English naturalist who studied the flora and fauna of the New World. Between 1729 and 1747 Catesby published his ''Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands'', the fi ...

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." Mountain laurel blooms (5940253290)

The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are 2–12 cm long and simple lanceolate. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are white, pink or purple, in corymbs of 10-50, reminiscent of

Rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...

flowers but flatter, with a star-like calyx of five conjoined

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s; each flower is 1–3 cm diameter. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

is a five-lobed capsule, which splits to release the numerous small

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

s. The foliage contains

grayanotoxin 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 (grayanotaxane-3,5,6,10,14,16-hexol 14-acetate) is als ...

s, a group of closely related

neurotoxin Neurotoxins are toxins that are destructive to nerve tissue (causing neurotoxicity). Neurotoxins are an extensive class of exogenous chemical neurological insultsSpencer 2000 that can adversely affect function in both developing and mature ner ...

s named after ''Leucothoe grayana'', native to Japan, so it is toxic if eaten, with

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

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,Natural History Education, Science, Technology
regarding alternate names, accessed March 30, 2007. which may be written with or without the hyphen. (See species list below.) "Kid" here refers to a young

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

, not a human child, but the foliage and twigs are toxic to humans as well. It has also been called

spoonwood Spoonwood is a common name for two plants: *''Kalmia latifolia'', a North American plant known as mountain laurel and numerous other names emphasizing its poisonous nature, such as lambkill, kill-kid, and calf-kill. *''Trichilia havanensis ''Tri ...

because Kalm was told by Dutch settlers of North America that Native Americans made spoons from the wood. Given its toxicity, this may be folklore rather than scientific fact. Kalmias are popular

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

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

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e of some

lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

n species including '' Coleophora kalmiella'' which feeds exclusively on ''Kalmia''.

Species

Species (and

infraspecific taxa In botany, an infraspecific name is the scientific name for any taxon below the rank of species, i.e. an infraspecific taxon or infraspecies. (A "taxon", plural "taxa", is a group of organisms to be given a particular name.) The scientific names ...

) listed by The Plant List as "Accepted": * ''

Kalmia angustifolia ''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, a ...

'' L. - Sheep-laurel, lambkill * '' Kalmia buxifolia'' (Bergius) Gift & Kron - Sandmyrtle * '' Kalmia carolina'' Small - Carolina mountain-laurel * '' Kalmia cuneata'' Michx. - Whitewicky * '' Kalmia ericoides'' C.Wright ex Griseb. - Cuban kalmia ** ''Kalmia ericoides'' var. ''aggregata'' (Small) Ebinger * ''

Kalmia hirsuta ''Kalmia hirsuta'', the hairy mountain-laurel, is a plant species native to the southeastern United States. It is reported from Florida, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina. It grows in open, sandy locations such as savannah ...

'' Walter - Hairy mountain-laurel * ''

Kalmia latifolia ''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, ...

'' L. - Lambkill ** ''Kalmia latifolia'' f. ''alba'' (Mouill.) Rehder ** ''Kalmia latifolia'' f. ''fuscata'' (Rehder) Rehder ** ''Kalmia latifolia'' f. ''obtusata'' (Rehder) Rehder ** ''Kalmia latifolia'' f. ''polypetala'' (G.Nicholson) Rehder * ''

Kalmia microphylla ''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 weste ...

'' (Hook.) A.Heller - Alpine laurel, alpine bog-laurel, alpine mountain-laurel ** ''Kalmia microphylla'' subsp. ''occidentalis'' (Small) Roy L.Taylor & MacBryde * '' Kalmia polifolia'' Wangenh. - Bog kalmia, bog-laurel * '' Kalmia simulata'' (Britton & M.Wilson) Southall ''

Kalmia procumbens ''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 tall. Originally named by Linnaeus as ''Azalea procumbens'', it is al ...

'' is a widely accepted member of this genus, though it is the only species in the genus ''Loiseleuria'' according to The Plant List. The related '' Kalmiopsis'' ('' Kalmiopsis leachiana'' and '' K. fragrans'') is a rare shrub

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to southwest

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. File:FFH-Gebiet "Altwarmbüchener Moor" (cropped).JPG, ''Kalmia angustifolia'' File:Kalmia buxifolia NRCS-2.jpg, ''Kalmia buxifolia'' File:Mountain Laurel - Flickr - treegrow (13).jpg, ''Kalmia latifolia'' File:Western Bog Laurel (cropped).jpg, ''Kalmia microphylla'' File:Kalmia polifolia.jpg, ''Kalmia polifolia''

Fossil record

Fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

leaves of †''Kalmia saxonica'' have been described from the

Lower Miocene The Early Miocene (also known as Lower Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages: the Aquitanian and Burdigalian stages. The sub-epoch lasted from 23.03 ± 0.05 Ma to 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma (million years ago). It was prece ...

Brandis Brandis () is a town in the Leipzig district, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated 16 km east of Leipzig. Born in Brandis * Karl Bock (1922-2004), physician in the field of pediatric cardiology * Anneliese Zänsler (born 1927), opera and op ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

Bełchatów Bełchatów () is a city in central Poland with a population of 55,583 as of December 2021. It is located in Łódź Voivodeship, from Warsaw. The Elektrownia Bełchatów, located in Bełchatów, is the largest coal fueled power plant in Euro ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, †Kalmia marcodurensis'' have been described from the Lower Miocene of

Bitterfeld Bitterfeld () is a town in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 July 2007 it has been part of the town of Bitterfeld-Wolfen. It is situated approximately 25 km south of Dessau, and 30 km northeast of Halle (S ...

. In the Late Tertiary ''Kalmia'' was associated with coal-forming vegetation occurring as a component of the vegetation of bush swamps together with ''

Cyrilla ''Cyrilla racemiflora'', the sole species in the genus ''Cyrilla'', is a flowering plant in the family Cyrillaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas, from the southeastern United States (coastal areas from southeastern ...

'' and other shrubs. Among recent species ''

'' is most similar to †''Kalmia saxonica'' in respect of morphology, while ''

'' has a very similar epidermal structure. These two extant species grow in the eastern part of

from (

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

) on acid swampy or marshy soils. 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

Bibliography

Books

* Jaynes, Richard A., 1997: Kalmia, mountain laurel and related species, Timber Press, Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. * Huebbers, Karl-Heinz and Westhoff, Julia,2020 : Fascynujące kalmie (Fascinating Kalmie) published by Plantin, Krakow, Poland ISBN: 978-83-956964-0-4

References

External links

European Kalmia SocietyKalmia.info: German Kalmia hybridizersPieris.eu: Info about ''Kalmia latifolia''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1427635 Ericaceae genera Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus