A handful of people recognized last week’s puzzler as Mountain Laurel, Kalmia latifolia. It is also called calico-bush, ivy bush, sheep laurel, lamb kill, or spoonwood. Have you seen this lately, in all its glory, full of white and pink flowers? It is spectacular! And everywhere it seems, especially along rivers and creeks. It’s hard to miss.
Mountain Laurel is the state flower of both Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
Mountain Laurel is an evergreen shrub that is native. It can be found from Maine all the way south to Florida and west to Indiana and Louisiana. It may be beautiful, but all parts of the shrub are poisonous to animals and humans. One cool thing about mountain laurel is that you can tell by looking at the flowers if they’ve been pollinated. In the photo below, see those white parts that extend out of the middle pink circle? It the flower has already been visited by a pollinator, those will be triggered and no longer connected to the outer pink dots. Check it out next time you see one!
For this week’s puzzler, we’re going to do another native shrub with white flowers. But instead of being cup-shaped like those of Mountain Laurel, Puzzler #247 has round, white, spiky flowers that attract many different kinds of pollinators. See if you know it.