Narrow-leaved Kalmia

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Video: Narrow-leaved Kalmia

Video: Narrow-leaved Kalmia
Video: Broadleaved Evergreens Part 2 - Cotoneaster - Leucothoe - Kalmia - Daphne 2024, March
Narrow-leaved Kalmia
Narrow-leaved Kalmia
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Narrow-leaved Kalmia (lat. Kalmia angustifolia) - an evergreen shrub from the genus Kalmia (Kalmia), ranked by botanists in the Heather family (lat. Ericaceae). In early summer, Kalmia narrow-leaved pleases the world with thick clusters of corymbose inflorescences, consisting of small raspberry-pink flowers, graceful and attractive.

What's in your name

Carl Linnaeus, following the established tradition when choosing names for plants - to use the names and surnames of his fellow botanists, named the genus of beautifully flowering shrubs after his student, Per Kalm, a Swedish botanist. The name was not chosen by chance. It was this botanist who first began to grow plants of the genus Calmia in Europe, taking roots (rhizome with dormant buds), petioles and seed capsules of plants from a trip to America. In those days, there were no customs inspections that would have taken away the collected "trophies" from the botanist, as is the case everywhere today.

The typical name of the species, "narrow-leaved", concretizes the shape of the leaves of this plant, since representatives of the Kalmia genus love to make the world richer by decorating different species of the genus with leaves of all kinds of shapes.

The presence of poisonous substances capable of killing sheep, calves, pigs in wild plants of Kalmia narrow-leaved, has become the reason for folk art in the creation of such names as "Sheep laurel", "Pork laurel", "Veal killer" …

Description

The main part of the evergreen perennial shrub is the underground rhizome. On it, buds arise and develop, which in the hot season start to grow, showing new shoots on the surface of the earth.

Narrow-lanceolate short-petiolate leaves prefer to be grouped in groups of 3, forming whorls. Unlike most plants, in which inflorescences are located at the ends of the shoots, the woody stem of Kalmiya narrow-leaved ends not with an inflorescence, but with another deciduous whorl.

From the whorls of the leaves located below the apical whorl, at the beginning of summer, a peduncle is born with a chic brush of corymbose inflorescence. The abundance of small adorable crimson-pink flowers (there are varieties with white, scarlet, lilac petals), like bright belts, enmeshes the branchy bush. The height of the bushes in the wild varies from 15 to 90 cm. In culture, in very favorable conditions, it can grow up to 1.5 meters.

The growing season ends with the birth of pubescent 5-celled capsules. Almost 180 seeds are hidden inside each of them.

Conditions for successful growth

In natural conditions, narrow-leaved Kalmia grows in the northern coniferous forests of America, characterized by dry soils.

Like our Ivan-tea, with which it has some external resemblance, the narrow-leaved Kalmia is one of the first to populate areas that have undergone massive deforestation or devastated by a fire. She heals earthly wounds, trying to tighten them with her lush bushes with elegant flowering.

To compensate for the poor composition of the soil, Kalmia narrow-leaved has acquired evergreen leaves, which work all year round for the benefit of the whole plant, converting the sun's rays into organic matter for its nutrition. In addition, she is friends with beneficial mushrooms, forming mycorrhizal associations with them.

But with its plant neighbors, Kalmia narrow-leaved does not behave very friendly, following an example from its other relatives. Its roots release chemical elements into the soil that act depressingly on neighbors. This behavior of Kalmiya narrow-leaved should be taken into account when choosing a landing site for it in a summer cottage.

The positive aspects of the plant are its resistance to heat and frost (withstands temperatures up to minus 45 degrees), drought resistance, shade tolerance, unpretentiousness to soils, provided there is no dampness.

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