These showy species have the largest (and most open, saucer-shaped) flowers of any of our native Ericaceae. The corolla (except in albinos) is pink, and as it opens each anther is held in a little pocket (visible externally on the buds). The filament is therefore arched backward, under tension. When a visiting insect trips the filament, the anther springs loose from its pocket and the insect receives a shower of pollen.
1. Leaves mostly in whorls of 3, distinctly petioled, green beneath; inflorescences axillary, the branches terminating in leafy shoots; calyx and pedicels glandular.
K. angustifolia
1. Leaves opposite, sessile or subsessile, strongly whitened (by dense minute puberulence) beneath; inflorescences terminal; calyx and pedicels eglandular.
K. polifolia
All species found in Kalmia
Citation:
MICHIGAN FLORA ONLINE. A. A. Reznicek, E. G. Voss, & B. S. Walters. February 2011. University of Michigan. Web. January 28, 2021. https://michiganflora.net/genus.aspx?id=Kalmia.