An evergreen shrub, varying considerably in height and habit. The largest form is 2 to 4 ft high, and of thin, open growth, the smallest a dwarf, tufted plant 6 in. or so high; young wood slightly downy. Leaves in pairs or in threes, oval or ovate, 3⁄4 to 2 in. long, 1⁄4 to 3⁄4 in. wide, glabrous and bright green above, paler or semi-glaucous beneath; stalk 1⁄6 to 1⁄3 in. long. Flowers produced in June, densely packed in rounded clusters 2 in. across at the termination of the previous year’s growth. Corolla saucer-shaped, 1⁄3 in. across, deep rosy-red; lobes five, shallowly triangular. Calyx and flower-stalks downy and glandular. Bot. Mag., t. 331
Native of eastern N. America; introduced in 1736. It spreads by sucker growths at the base, and the dwarfer forms are dainty shrubs. Propagated by seed or by pulling old plants apart in spring.
f. Candida Fern. – Flowers white.
var. ovata Pursh – Leaves ovate, broader.
f. rubra (Lodd.) Zab. – Flowers deeper red.
K. carolina Small K. angustifolia var. Carolina (Small) Fern. – Leaves coated beneath with a fine, greyish, velvety down. Calyx not glandular. Introduced 1906. It may also be in cultivation from seeds collected in 1933 by the New York Botanic Garden Expedition to the Appallachians, under No. 63. These came from Flat Rock, N. Carolina, which is the type-locality of the species, and the plants were described in the field notes as 2 ft high, with bluish foliage and flowers rather larger than in those of K. angustifolia, and of clearer pink.