Germinating as weeds in garden beds and sometimes lawns, usually persisting for up to a couple of years, until they get weeded or mowed out of existence.
Naturally occurring tree at the edge of a forest, not cultivated.
Photos of twigs and fruit from three cultivated trees:
Photos taken in January and November 2022.
The last four photos from the same clump of shrubs, but 3.5 years earlier.
Numerous trees of this species growing in a generally rocky, upland forest, many of the rocks appearing to be basalt or something similar. Acorn cap about 1.5 cm diameter.
This species hasn't been documented in Guilford County since the 1960s, but it's still present here in this surprisingly large population.
I was tipped off to this population here by fallen leaves seen in this observation:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/98495883
Kalmia angustifolia ("a") and K. latifolia ("l"), compared. Effectively cultivated plants, but naturally occurring in a block of surface Sphagnum and peat collected in 2006 from a raised coastal bog in Jonesport, Washington County, Maine. In 2006 K. angustifolia was present but small and sparse in the peat block, but K. latifolia was not evident at all, so it must have germinated later from seed in the peat.
Flower photos taken on 18 May 2022; sterile stems photo taken on 8 June 2022; fruit photos taken on 4 August 2022.