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Mountain Laurel
(Kalmia latifolia)
This is Connecticut's State Flower!
This is a native shrub.
The man who invented the naming system for plants, Carl Linnaeus, called this one Kalmia after his student Peter Kalm. Peter Kalm came to our country in 1753 looking for plants to take back to Europe...we might assume he brought the Mountain Laurel to the attention of his teacher.
In New England the Mountain Laurel is usually a shrub. Down south in the mountains of North and South Carolina it can grow to be a small tree. It is tolerant of many conditions.
This shrub is highly prized in England now. People there are sometimes VERY surprised to hear that it grows so thickly in the wild here that it sometimes covers a hillside with bloom in the spring. Have you ever driven to Bigelow Hollow State Park in the spring? It is only 20 minutes away, north on I84 the Union exit. The lakes there reflect the bloom. (Take your lunch and explore.)
The Native Americans used the wood for spoons...in fact, the name "spoonwood" has been used for this shrub. The wood carves nicely and the fine grain takes a good polish. The wood is also often gnarled so you can pick a place that bends the way you want your spoon or ladle to go!
The flowers are white or pinkish. They grow at the end of the stem (called terminal clusters....terminal means "the end").
This photo is on the little plant in out garden. Mountain laurel can live in light shade, too, and you will often see it in the wild growing under tall trees at the edge of the woods and even back in less dense woods.
Look at the flowers with a hand lens (magnifying glass) sometime. You will see the long filaments of the stamen bent over and latched into a tiny dimple in the flower...like a mouse trap. When a bee steps on the petal the spring is released and "whap", the stamen zips out and snaps pollen all over the insect!! Use the tip of a pin and pretend you are a bee...see what happens. There are 10 stamens.
If the flower was lucky enough to be pollinated by an insect carrying pollen granules to its pistil it will form these seed capsules.
This is the dry capsule opening to drop seeds.
This was on a plant left over from last year's flowers.There are 5 parts to the capsule. The flower had 5 petals, too,
but the petals were joined together to make a little bowl shape.
Aren't the forms of the bud and flower fascinating?!
You can sort of see the stamens I mentioned earlier snapped into the little indent in the flower. It looks like the ribs of an umbrella.
Study pointers:
- Look at the botanical names of many plants (perhaps use the index of a plant identification book to see many conveniently). Do any look like people's names?
- Find a plant named for Ben Franklin!
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