2024 Edition • Get the App • Cite this Page
X

Colors

Data mode

Account

Login
Sign up

Collapse this

Support the Flora of the Southeastern US

2024 has been a banner year for making the best flora we can imagine. We've created:
With financial support from people like you, we are aiming even higher in 2025. Together we can accomplish all this: Vote on our 2025 priorities
  • Add Global Conservation Ranks (GRanks) vote
  • Professional graphic keys (polyclaves) to individual families/genera vote
  • 2 new FloraQuest apps: Florida & Mid-South vote
  • Image overlays highlighting diagnostic characters with arrows vote
  • iNaturalist integration in FloraQuest vote
Write-in vote: vote
We've set a goal of recruiting 200 ongoing supporters to donate $15 or more each month in 2025. Please help us reach this goal and make next year's flora even better:
Donate $15 per month
(0.06¢/key line)
Donate $30 per month
(0.13¢/key line)
Donate $50 per month
(amazing!)
Donate another
or one-time amount
Copy permalink to share

Kalmia latifolia Linnaeus. Mountain Laurel, Ivy, Calico-bush. Phen: Mar-Jul; Aug-Oct. Hab: Acidic forests, bluffs, bogs, along sandhill steams, and in a wide range of other habitats, nearly ubiquitous in the mountains, up to at least 1600m, more restricted in habitat in the lower Piedmont and Coastal Plain. Dist: ME, OH, and IN south to Panhandle FL and extreme e. LA.

ID notes: Unlike our other species of Kalmia, which are strictly shrubs, K. latifolia reaches the stature and diameter of a small tree.

Origin/Endemic status: Native

Synonymy ⓘ: = C, Fl5, FNA8, K1, K3, K4, NE, NY, Pa, RAB, S, Tn, Va, W, WH3, WV, Ebinger (1974), Luteyn et al (1996), Southall & Hardin (1974); > Kalmia latifolia L. var. laevipes Fernald – F, G, Tat; > Kalmia latifolia L. var. latifolia – F, G, Tat

Links to other floras: = Kalmia latifolia - FNA8

Show in key(s)

Show parent genus

Wetland Indicator Status:

  • Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain: FACU
  • Eastern Mountains and Piedmont: FACU
  • Midwest: FACU
  • Northcentral & Northeast: FACU

Heliophily ⓘ: 4

Your browser does not support SVGs

Hover over a shape, letter, icon, or arrow on the map for definition or see the legend.

image of plant© Erik Danielson source | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Scott Ward | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Sonnia Hill | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Erik Danielson source | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Alan M. Cressler | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Keith Bradley | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Gary P. Fleming | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Collectors SOS | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Erik Danielson source | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Gary P. Fleming | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Collectors SOS | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Edwin Bridges | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Erik Danielson source | Original Image ⭷
image of plant© Scott Ward | Original Image ⭷

Feedback

See something wrong or missing on about Kalmia latifolia? Let us know here: (Please include your name and email if at all complicated so we can clarify if needed.) We greatly appreciate feedback, and will include updates from you in our next webapp update, which can take a few months.