Kalmia polifolia

Swamp laurel, bog laurel, Box Laurel

Family: Ericaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Swamp laurel is a California native shrub found in the Klamath Ranges, North Coast Ranges, California Ranges, Sierra Nevada, and Warner Mountains in peat bogs, moist meadows, and rock crevices at elevations of 1,000 to 3,500 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces delicate pink to rose-purple flowers in clusters with distinctive bell-shaped corollas 7 to 11 millimeters long. Growing as a low-spreading mat with ascending stems 10 to 70 centimeters tall, it forms dense ground-covering patches. Its leaves are distinctive, measuring 4 to 60 millimeters long and 3 to 25 millimeters wide, with a pale green to white undersurface and a fine, soft covering. The compact shrub produces small fruits 4 to 5 millimeters wide, nestled among its linear to ovate foliage.

Habitat: Peat bogs, moist meadows, rock crevices

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 1000-3500 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRO, CaRH, SNH, Wrn

California counties: Fresno, Mono, Tulare, Siskiyou, Inyo, Modoc, Plumas, Sierra, El Dorado, Humboldt, Tuolumne, Trinity, Madera, Amador, Placer, Shasta, Alpine

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.