Crossword clues for kalmia
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Kalmia \Kal"mi*a\, n. [NL. Named in honor of Peter Kalm, a Swedish botanist.] (Bot.) A genus of North American shrubs with poisonous evergreen foliage and corymbs of showy flowers. Called also mountain laurel, ivy bush, lamb kill, calico bush, etc.
Wiktionary
n. Any plant in the taxonomic genus ''Kalmia''.
WordNet
n. any plant of the genus Kalmia
Wikipedia
Kalmia is a genus of about 8 species of evergreen shrubs from 0.2–5 m tall, in the family Ericaceae. They are native to North America (mainly in the eastern half of the continent) and Cuba. They grow in acidic soils, with different species in wet acid bog habitats (K. angustifolia, K. polifolia) and dry, sandy soils (K. ericoides, K. latifolia).
Kalmia was named by Linnaeus to honour his friend the botanist Pehr Kalm, who collected it in eastern North America during the mid-18th century. Earlier Mark Catesby saw it during his travels in Carolina, and after his return to England in 1726, imported seeds. He described it, a costly rarity, in his Natural History of Carolina, as Chamaedaphne foliis tini, that is to say "with leaves like the Laurustinus"; the botanist and plant-collector Peter Collinson, who had begged some of the shrub from his correspondent John Custis in Virginia, wrote, when his plants flowered, that "I Really Think it exceeds the Laurus Tinus."
The leaves are 2–12 cm long, simple lanceolate, and arranged spirally on the stems. The flowers are white, pink or purple, in corymbs of 10-50, reminiscent of Rhododendron flowers but flatter, with a star-like calyx of five conjoined petals; each flower is 1–3 cm diameter. The fruit is a five-lobed capsule, which splits to release the numerous small seeds.
The foliage is toxic if eaten, with sheep being particularly prone to poisoning, hence the name lambkill used for some of the species. Other names for Kalmia, particularly Kalmia angustifolia, are sheep-laurel, lamb-kill, calf-kill, kill-kid, and sheep-poison, which may be written with or without the hyphen. (See species list below.) "Kid" here refers to a young goat, not a human child, but the foliage and twigs are toxic to humans as well.
It has also been called spoonwood because Kalm was told by Dutch settlers of North America that Native Americans made spoons from the wood. Given its toxicity, this may be folklore rather than scientific fact.
Kalmias are popular garden shrubs, grown for their decorative flowers. They should not be planted where they are accessible to livestock due to the toxicity.
Kalmia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some lepidopteran species including Coleophora kalmiella which feeds exclusively on Kalmia.
Kalmia is a genus of evergreen shrubs.
It may also refer to some locations in the United States:
- Kalmia, Maryland
- Kalmia Gardens, in Hartsville, South Carolina
- The Kalmia Hills, a mountain range in California
Usage examples of "kalmia".
The azalia, the shumac, and every variety of that beautiful mischief, the kalmia, are in equal profusion.
The plant is a suitable companion to the ledums, kalmias, gaultherias, and other genera of its own order.
The azalia, the shumac, and every variety of that beautiful mischief, the kalmia, are in equal profusion.
The thickets may be varied too by making some of them of evergreens altogether, our red cedar made to grow in a bush, evergreen privet, pyrocanthus, Kalmia, Scotch broom.
The Pacific coast possesses no papaw, no linden or basswood, no locust-trees, no cherry-tree large enough for a timber tree, no gum-trees, no sorrel-tree, nor kalmia.