Kalmia latifolia

Today's the day ...................... for a botanical blip

Kalmia is one of the plants that is in flower just now in the garden at work. It is an evergreen shrub in the family Ericaceae and it is native to North America. It was named by the Swedish botanist, Linnaeus, to honour his friend the Finnish botanist Pehr Kalm.

It was introduced into Britain by the Quaker merchant, Peter Collinson. Although Collinson was a cloth merchant by vocation, largely trading with North America, his real love was gardening. Through his business contacts he obtained samples of seeds and plants from around the world.

He came to realise that there was a market for such things in England, and in the late 1730s began to import North American botanical seeds for English collectors to grow. He financed the travels of the American plant collector, John Bartram and distributed the New World seeds collected by Bartram to British gentry, nurserymen, and natural scientists.

It is now a common shrub to be found widely in this country ...................