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Ericaceae
Mountain Laurel
Kalmia latifolia
Ambition, perseverance, treachery (toxicity).
- Family
- Ericaceae
- Genus
- Kalmia
- Native to
- Eastern North America
- Bloom season
- Late Spring, Early Summer
- Type
- evergreen shrub
- Height
- 1.5–4.5 m
- Sunlight
- Partial shade
- Soil
- Acidic, well-drained, humus-rich
- Water
- Regular
- Hardiness
- 5–9
- Lifespan
- 75+ years
Did you know
- Mountain laurel is the state flower of Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
- Each unopened bud is a perfect 10-pointed pink star, looking like sugar candy.
- The flower has a unique pollination mechanism — the stamens are held under spring tension and snap forward when triggered, flinging pollen at visiting bees.
- All parts contain grayanotoxins and are extremely poisonous to humans and livestock — honey made from mountain laurel nectar is also toxic.
- Carl Linnaeus named the genus after his student Pehr Kalm, a Swedish-Finnish naturalist who explored colonial North America in 1748.