Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Ericales > Ericaceae > Kalmia > Kalmia latifolia

Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Kalmia latifolia, commonly called mountain-laurel,calico-bush, or spoonwood, is a broadleaved evergreen shrub in the heather 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 and the city of Laurel, Mississippi (founded 1882).
View Wikipedia Record: Kalmia latifolia

Attributes

Bloom Period [1]  Mid Spring
Drought Tolerance [1]  High
Fire Tolerance [1]  Medium
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Frost Free Days [1]  5 months
Fruit/Seed Abundance [1]  Low
Fruit/Seed Begin [1]  Spring
Fruit/Seed End [1]  Summer
Growth Form [1]  Multiple Stem
Growth Period [1]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [1]  Slow
Hazards [2]  The foliage is poisonous to animals; The whole plant is highly toxic; Cases of poisoning have occurred when livestock or game birds have been eaten after they have ingested this plant;
Janka Hardness [3]  1790 lbf (812 kgf) Medium
Leaf Type [2]  Evergreen
Lifespan [1]  Perennial
Pollinators [2]  Bees
Propagation [1]  Bare Root, Container, Cutting, Seed
Root Depth [1]  24 inches (61 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [1]  Slow
Seed Vigor [1]  Low
Seeds Per [1]  14999970 / lb (33069300 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [1]  Semi-Erect
Specific Gravity [4]  0.62
Structure [2]  Shrub
Usage [2]  A yellow-tan dye is obtained from the leaves; The plant can be grown as an informal hedge; Wood - heavy, hard, strong but rather brittle. It weighs 44lb per cubic foot and is used for making small implements, tool handles etc; The roots are used to make spoons etc, these are fashioned when the wood is green and soft, when dry they become very hard and smooth; The wood is a good fuel;
Vegetative Spread Rate [1]  None
Flower Color [1]  Purple
Foliage Color [1]  Green
Fruit Color [1]  Brown
Flower Conspicuous [1]  Yes
Height [2]  9.84 feet (3 m)
Width [2]  9.84 feet (3 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 4 Low Temperature: -30 F° (-34.4 C°) → -20 F° (-28.9 C°)
Light Preference [1]  Mostly Shady
Soil Acidity [1]  Very Acid
Soil Fertility [1]  Infertile
Water Use [1]  Low
Screening - Summer [1]  Moderate
Screening - Winter [1]  Moderate
View Plants For A Future Record : Kalmia latifolia

Protected Areas

Emblem of

Connecticut
Pennsylvania

Predators

Range Map

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3Wood Janka Hardness Scale/Chart J W Morlan's Unique Wood Gifts
♦ 4Chave J, Coomes D, Jansen S, Lewis SL, Swenson NG, Zanne AE (2009) Towards a worldwide wood economics spectrum. Ecology Letters 12: 351-366. Zanne AE, Lopez-Gonzalez G, Coomes DA, Ilic J, Jansen S, Lewis SL, Miller RB, Swenson NG, Wiemann MC, Chave J (2009) Data from: Towards a worldwide wood economics spectrum. Dryad Digital Repository.
♦ 5HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 6Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 7del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 8Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 9Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0