Flowering Plants
of the Forest
(Spring and Summer Bloomers)
Mountain Laurel
(Click on image to enlarge photo)
D...
Mountain Laurel - Kalmia latifolia
This plant reaches the size of a small tree and can grow to 40 feet tall. The flower is waxy pinkish or white, cupped up, and five-lobed. A good way to identify this shrub when not in flower from rhododendron is: "short leaf, short name; long leaf, long name." Early settlers knew this laurel as "ivy" and rhododendron as laurel which causes some confusion even today.
