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Key to Species

     Linnaeus described the genus Kalmia (Linnaeus, 1753, 1754) as well as its first two species, K. latifolia and K. angustifolia. Drude (1897) placed Kalmia in the Phyllodoceae, and its position has not been changed by most subsequent authors (see Ebinger, 1974).  Kalmia is likely monophyletic, and is easily distinguished its from relatives by the distinctive apomorphy of a corolla with ten pouches in which the anthers are held before pollination (see Southall & Hardin, 1974; Ebinger, 1974; Judd & Kron, in press).  The genus has been recently monographed by Southall & Hardin (1974) and Ebinger (1974), and the taxonomy of the Cuban species, K. ericoides, has been investigated by Judd (1983) and Berazaín & Sorribes (1987).  Characters most useful in species delimitation include: 1) leaf arrangement, size, shape, extent of marginal revolution, and persistence, 2) inflorescence structure, 3) calyx and corolla size; 4) seed morphology, and 5) distribution of multicellular gland-headed hairs and unicellular hairs.
     The genus is economically important mainly because Kalmia latifolia and, to a lesser extent, K. angustifolia are commonly grown as ornamental shrubs in temperate areas of North America and Europe.  Many cultivars of both species are available (see Ebinger, 1974; Jaynes, 1975).  Some species have been used medicinally in the past, and K. angustifolia and K. latifolia are known to cause livestock poisoning (Ebinger, 1974).

KALMIA Linnaeus, Sp. pl. 1: 391.  1753.  Chamaedaphne Catesby ex Kuntze, Rev. gen. pl. 2: 388.  1891, nom. illeg., non Chamaedaphne Mitchell, Diss. Brev. Bot. Zool. 44. 1769, nomen rej., non Chamaedaphne Moench Meth. 457.  1794, nomen cons.; Small, N. Amer. fl. 29: 33-102.  1914;  Copeland, Amer. Midl. Nat. 30: 533-625. 1943; Wood, J. Arnold Arbor. 42: 10-80.  1961;  Ebinger, Rhodora 76: 315-398. 1974; Southall & Hardin, J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. 90: 1-23.  1974;  Judd, Rhodora 85: 45-54. 1983; Berazaín & Sorribes, Rev. Jard. Bot. Nac. 8(3): 3-17. 1987;  Berazaín, Ericaceae, Flora de la República de Cuba.  Fontqueria 35: 21-80.  1992;  Judd, Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 66: 123-130.  1995.  Lectotype species: Kalmia latifolia Linnaeus; see Britton & Brown, Ill. fl. n. U.S. ed. 2. 2: 683.  1913.
 

Kalmiella Small, Fl. S.E. U.S. 886.  1903.  Type species: Kalmiella hirsuta (Walter) Small (=Kalmia hirsuta Walter).

     Evergreen [or occasionally deciduous] shrubs or small trees with terete or angled branches;  indumentum of multicellular, multiseriate, short- to long-stalked, glandular-headed hairs, multicellular, multiseriate, non-glandular, long-celled hairs, and unicellular hairs;  buds very small, flattened, with 2 outer, valvate to imbricate scales [or scales lacking].   Leaves alternate, [opposite, or in whorls of 3,] exstipulate, [petioled to] nearly sessile;  blades simple, coriaceous;  margins entire, [plane to] strongly revolute;  venation brochidodromous to nearly hyphodromous. Inflorescences axillary or terminal fascicles or short corymb-like racemes or panicles, or flowers solitary in leaf axils;  pedicel with 2 basal, opposite bracteoles; floral bract small, leaf-like.  Flowers perfect, actinomorphic, 5-merous, articulate with pedicel;  calyx of triangular to ovate-triangular lobes, [persistent or] tardily deciduous in fruit;  corolla with a short cylindrical tube extending into a shallowly lobed and rotate limb, white to pink, [or purple], with 10 saccate depressions in which the anthers are held under tension;  stamens 10, in 2 whorls, shorter than the corolla and inserted at its base;  filaments slender, [glabrous or] pubescent; anthers ovoid, smooth, lacking awns, dehiscing by large ± terminal slit-like pores, lacking white disintegration tissue;  pollen in tetrads, with [or without] viscin strands; ovary 5-locular with massive placentae;  style slender, terete, nearly straight, impressed into apex of ovary;  stigma flat, unexpanded, slightly grooved.  Capsules, erect, septicidal, subglobose to ovoid, with 5 sutures;  placentae persistent on columella; seeds small, brown, with testa tight [or loose and extending well past the ends of the remainder of the seed].

Key to Neotropical Species                                                                                               Back to Top

     The only species in the Neotropics is Kalmia eriocoides.

    This is a modified version of the treatment of the neotropical species of Kalmia (Ericaceae) by Walter S. Judd, from "Ericaceae--Part II. The Superior-Ovaried Genera (Monotropoideae, Pyroloideae, Rhododendroideae, and Vaccinioideae p.p.)."  The full treatment including specimen citations may be see in Flora Neotropica Monograph 66: 123-130 (Judd, 1995b).  This on-line synthesis is published with permission of The New York Botanical Garden and Walter S. Judd.

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