Common Name: Mountain laurel
Family: Ericaceae
West Simsbury, CT
Plant is Native to: eastern North America; hardy to zone 5 and protected areas in zone 4.
Plant Height at maturity: 5 to 12 feet tall, with similar spread.
Plant Habit and Form: Broadleaf evergreen shrub. Has a rounded shape, with irregular branching. Can be dense and compact or loose and open, depending on amount of light that plant has.
Foliage: Leaves are elliptical, 2" to 5" long, .75" to 1.5" wide. Leaf tip is pointed; margins are entire and smooth; color is dark green and glossy above, but in full sun can be yellow-green; yellowish green below. Leathery texture, entire. Leaves are clustered alternately toward the shoot tip, otherwise opposite or whorled. No fall color change.
West Simsbury, CT
Bark: Color is brown-tan; lightly ridged and furrowed; trunks are gnarled and twisted.
Flower: 4" to 6" diameter clusters of small individual blooms at branch tips, occur in late May to early June, lasting 2 weeks or more. Individual flowers are .75" to 1" across, borne in terminal corymbs about 4" to 6" in diameter. Normal color is pink, fades to nearly white. Many cultivars have been selected and bred to produce red budded, cinnamon banded, pure white and deep pink/red flowered forms.
West Simsbury, CT
Fruit/Seed: Non-ornamental, small dehiscent capsules are brown-tan color. Persist through winter.
Growing Requirements: Prefers partial shade to full sun. Plants grown in full shade are very thin and open and bloom sparsely. Flowers best in partial sun. Requires a cool, moist, acidic, organic soil for best performance. Avoid windswept sites. Remove flowers immediately after flowering and mulch around base to keep soil moist.
Problems and Drawbacks: Leaf spot, especially in moist, heavy shade; lacebug; foliar burn (winter injury) in exposed, windy sites; blight, flower blight, whitefly, scale. Performs poorly in heavy, high pH soils (chlorosis).
Special Uses: Provides good evergreen foliage and showy blooms that work well in partially shaded sites, foundation plantings, naturalizing and mixing with other broadleaf evergreens. Dirr says the kalmia is "exquisite in mass" and "magnificent in flower".
ID Tips/Remarks: broadleaf evergreen with elliptical leaves and acute apex. Leaf margins have no serrations (complete); alternate leaves clustered at the shoot tip (often confused with Pieris sp.); lateral buds hidden behind the petiole base. State flower of Connecticut.
Bibliography:
http://www.hort.uconn.edu/Plants/k/kallat/kallat1.html
Dirr, Michael A. Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, 1998, Stipes Publishing, Champaign, IL
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