Kalmia polifolia
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Kalmia polifolia' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Synonyms
- Kalmia glauca Aiton
- Kalmia glauca var. rosmarinifolia Pursh
- Kalmia polifolia var. rosmarinifolia (Pursh) Rehder
An evergreen shrub 1 to 2 ft high, of rather thin, erect, bifurcating habit, but bushy; young shoots two-edged, covered with a fine down at first. Leaves opposite or in threes, narrowly oblong or ovate, 3⁄4 to 11⁄2 in. long, 1⁄8 to 3⁄8 in. wide, plane or recurved at the margins, tapered at both ends, dark lustrous green above and glabrous except on the midrib, lower surface glaucous white. Flowers in a terminal, flattish cluster 1 to 11⁄2 in. across, produced late in April; flower-stalks glabrous, very slender. Calyx-lobes ovate-oblong. Corolla saucer-shaped, about 1⁄2 in. across, with five broad, shallow lobes, of a beautiful pale purplish rose. Stamens of the same colour, but with brown anthers. Bot. Mag., t. 177.
Native of both eastern and western N. America; introduced in 1767. Naturally a plant of bogs and other wet places, it likes a cool, moist soil. Under the drier conditions usually given it in cultivation it is a sturdier more erect shrub than it appears to be in nature, where it is said to be straggling. It is very hardy and one of the brightest of spring-flowering shrubs of its colour.