Flora of North America species comparison

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Kalmiopsis

kalmiopsis
Habit Shrubs, (sometimes rooting adventitiously and suckering).
Stems

erect or trailing, (branching from base);

twigs (terete), puberulent and sparsely sessile- or stipitate-glandular, becoming glabrate, (older twigs without peglike projections).
Leaves

persistent, alternate;

petiole present;

blade coriaceous, margins entire; (buds with sessile glands).
Inflorescences

terminal, corymbiform racemes, 2–15-flowered;

perulae absent.
Flowers

bisexual, radially symmetric;

sepals (persistent), 5, nearly distinct;

petals 5, connate ca. 1/3–1/2 their lengths, corolla deciduous, campanulate;

stamens 10, exserted;

anthers not awned, dehiscent by apical pores;

ovary 5-locular, (subglobose);

stigma capitate.
Fruits

capsular, (5-valved), subglobose, dehiscence basipetally septicidal.
Seeds

ca. 50–150, ovoid, not winged, not tailed;

testa reticulate.
x

= 12.

Kalmiopsis
Distribution
from USDA
sw Oreg
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 2 (2 in the flora).

Kalmiopsis is the only vascular plant genus endemic to the state of Oregon; it is cultivated for its showy flowers. Although early tradesmen found Kalmiopsis a difficult subject for propagation, plants can be grown with perseverance and are today occasionally established in private and public gardens in the Pacific Northwest, Europe, and elsewhere. The plants are evidently long-lived and generally reproduce infrequently in nature. Flowers exhibit a pronounced stigma height polymorphism; further study is needed to assess its breeding system significance. Distyly is otherwise unknown in the Ericaceae, with the possible exception of Epigaea repens, a dioecious species that exhibits a continuum of long- and short-styled flowers yet lacks other evidence of heterostyly. The genus is the namesake for the Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area, a remote region just east of the Pacific Ocean that is rich in endemic species and remarkable substrates.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Tufted, erect shrubs, 2-4(-8) dm; petals connate ca. 1/2 their lengths; filaments 3-7(-10) mm; corolla throat puberulent, inner surface of connate portion puberulent to glabrous; endemic to Siskiyou Mountains.
K. leachiana
1. Loose, erect to trailing shrubs, usually to 12(-30) dm; petals connate ca. 1/3 their lengths; filaments 7-16 mm; corolla throat mostly glabrous, inner surface of connate portion with basal tufts of yellowish cilia; endemic to s Cascade Mountains.
K. fragrans
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 478. Authors: Robert J. Meinke, Shunguo Liu.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Ericoideae
Subordinate taxa
K. fragrans, K. leachiana
Name authority Rehder: J. Arnold Arbor. 13: 31, plate 40. 1932 ,
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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