Shrub to 2 m or more tall, rarely a tree. Leaves alternate, leathery, elliptic, mostly 5-12 cm long. Flowers in terminal clusters, individual flowers to 2.5 cm wide and mostly pinkish and spotted around the anther pockets; spring to summer. Fruit a compressed spherical capsule; seeds pale brown with short projections at each end.
Source: (1997). Ericaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Corolla purplish-cinnamon on the inside with a white centre and white edge.
Introduced by Knight Hollow Nursery, Madison, Wisconsin, 1963.
Corolla patterned with purplish-cinnamon on inside.
Kalmia latifolia 'Clementine Churchill'
Corolla pinkish outside and reddish inside.
Originated Sheffield Park, Sussex, England.
Kalmia latifolia 'Yankee Doodle'
Pinkish red in bud with a narrow maroon band towards the edge of the flower which is white in the centre. The inner ring is red.
Selected in 1975 and first commercially propagated by Bolton Technologies, Bolton, Connecticut, 1985
