LAUREL: We know that mountain laurel is Pennsylvania’s state flower, but what else do we know about it?
The Penn State Extension tells us the common shrub is also extraordinary.
“Mountain laurel is the most prolific of the Kalmia species. In the woods, it can grow in dense gnarly thickets known colloquially in southern states as ‘laurel hells.’ Foresters and lumbermen in Pennsylvania have been heard to curse it with off-color expressions and not-so-nice epithets, the least offensive being ‘ankle breaker’ or ‘ankle twister.’ Mature plants average heights from seven to ten feet, but some specimens have been recorded as tall as 40 feet.
“Ascending and horizontal branches are often contorted and considered picturesque, and although a shrub, the healthiest of mountain laurel can take on the stature of a small tree. Its growth rate, however, is slow, four to eight feet over the course of a decade. Laurel wood and its burls have been used for various tools and utensils, explaining one of its many monikers, ‘spoonwood.’
“The corymb is the marquee attraction. The fused petals of mountain laurel’s florets are shaped like inverted parasols. They range from near white to a blush of pink, while their corollas include subtle markings that can reveal either cinnamon, scarlet, rose, or burgundy. From late May to late June, scores of these corymbs appear in one of two stages, bud or bloom.
“As mountain laurel blooms, something extraordinary happens. For more than a century botanists have observed that the opening of a bloom literally creates a tension in the filament similar to the cocking of a catapult.
“Scientists have slowed down their observations using high-speed cameras to study mountain laurel and its pollinators. Sacs of pollen, attached to ten separate anthers, are nestled into the base of the bud that will open into the corolla. As the bloom swells, then opens, the filaments attached to each anther are pulled backward in an arc, creating a hair-like trigger. When a bumblebee begins to explore, the filament hurls the pollen at the underside of the bee.”
Penn State tells us, too, that contrary to what we’ve always been told, it is not against the law to pick the state flower.
