If you are out in the fall, stop to examine the small capsules on the mountain laurel; these were once the plant’s flowers in May, June, and July.
Photo Credit Leonard M. Adkins
Take a look at the individual blossoms of the mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) and you will find a most ingenious pollination mechanism. The five petals (each with two small notches) are connected together to form a shallow bowl. The 10 stamens growing from the center of the petals are tucked inside the notches. A single pistil rises to the outside of the petals. When an insect visitor (usually a bee) arrives to gather nectar, it brushes against the bent-over stamens. This moves them around enough to cause their tops to break free of the notches, spring upward, and toss pollen from the anthers onto the insect’s body. Moving on to the next flower, the insect can’t help but brush against its pistil, thereby depositing the pollen and ensuring fertilization.
In addition to the usual way plants propagate themselves, mountain laurel reproduces by sending up new shoots from its spreading root system, or, when branches touch the ground, by growing new roots, which radiate outward and, in turn, send up shoots of their own. This is how mountain laurel is able to develop into the dense thickets that you see.
If you are out in the fall, stop to examine the small capsules on the mountain laurel; these were once the plant’s flowers in May, June, and July. Break one open and you will see what appears to be a brown powder. Each speck of dust is actually a seed of the mountain laurel—a seed so small that it would take thousands of them just to fill a tiny thimble.
Flower Fast Facts
FLOWER: Growing in clusters, the nearly 1-inch, cup-shaped flowers vary from pink to white. Radiating from the center, the flower’s 10 stamens create a distinctive spoke design.
LEAVES AND STEM: The shrub usually grows 5-10 feet in height, but can, on rare occasions, reach as high as 35 feet. The evergreen leaves are sometimes confused with rhododendron leaves but are smaller and more slender.
BLOOM SEASON: May-July
About This Series
“Mountain Wildflowers” features a wildflower from the Blue Ridge region each month from March to October. Leonard M. Adkins has written for Blue Ridge Country for more than two decades and is the author of 20 books about travel, hiking and nature. His Wildflowers of the Appalachian Trail, which received the prestigious National Outdoor Book Award, provides the photographs and some of the information he writes about in each “Mountain Wildflowers.” It and his other works may be obtained through his website.
