Kalmia polifolia
species of plant
Kalmia polifolia, previously known as Kalmia glauca and commonly called bog laurel, swamp laurel, or pale laurel, is a perennial evergreen shrub of cold acidic bogs, in the family Ericaceae. It is native to north-eastern North America, from Newfoundland to Hudson Bay southwards.
Etymology
The genus 'Kalmia' is named after Pehr Kalm, a Swedish-Finn botanist, who was a student of Linnaeus. The species name, 'polifolia', is Latin for 'pole-leaves' or 'pole-petals'.
The former species name, 'glauca', is Latin for gleaming or gray, a word ultimately derived from the Ancient Greek 'γλαυκός', meaning blue-green or blue-gray.
History
The plant was first described by Friedrich Adam Julius von Wangenheim, a German botanist.
Distribution and habitat
Kalmia polifolia is common throughout Northern North America, thriving along the Eastern American states and in Montana, as well as in every Canadian province except in British Columbia, although spottings have been reported of Kalmia polifolia at Rhododenron Lake, located near Vancouver Island. Within Canada, Kalmia polifolia is very commonly found in east Nova Scotia where bog conditions are more frequent. Kalmia polifolia has also been spotted in a bog in Surrey, England.
Description
Kalmia polifolia flowers in April and is pollinated by bees.
“Kalmia polifolia” enters the record as species of plant. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kalmia, polifolia and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Kalmia polifolia” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Kalmia, polifolia and species provides the most credible route into that argument.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2358255. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kalmia polifolia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.