MOUNTAIN LAUREL 



(Kalmia Latifolia) 



THIS tree belongs to the heath family and not to the laurels, as the 

 name seems to imply. The same is true of rhododendron. The 

 kalniia genus has five or six species in this country, but only one of tree 

 size, and then only when at its best. Mountain laurel reaches its best 

 development in North and South Carolina in a few secluded valleys 

 between the Blue Ridge and the western mountains of the Appalachian 

 ranges. The largest specimens are forty or fifty feet high and a foot or a 

 foot and a half in diameter. Trunks are contorted and unshapely, and 

 lumber is never sawed from them. 



The tree has many names, most of them, however, are applied to 

 the species in its shrubby form. A common name is simply laurel, but 

 that does not distinguish it from the great laurel which is often associated 

 with it. Calico bush is one of its names, and is supposed to be descriptive 

 of the flowers. Spoonwood is one of its northern names, dating back to 

 the times when early settlers, who carried little silverware with them to 

 their frontier homes, augmented the supply by making spoons and ladles 

 of laurel roots. Ivy is a common name, sometimes mountain ivy, or 

 poison ivy. Poison laurel and sheep laurel are among the names also. 

 The leaves are poisonous, and if sheep feed on them, death is apt to 

 follow. The exact nature of the poison is not understood. Sheep 

 seldom feed on the leaves, and do so only when driven by hunger. 

 Other names are small laurel, wood laurel, and kalmia. The last is the 

 name of the genus, and is in honor of Peter Kalm, a Swedish naturalist. 



The species is found from New Brunswick to Louisiana, but princi- 

 pally among the ranges of the Appalachian mountains. Its thin bark 

 makes it an easy prey to fire and the top is killed by a moderate blaze. 

 The root generally remains uninjured and sends up sprouts in large 

 numbers. Thickets almost impenetrable are sometimes produced in 

 that way. 



Flowers and foliage of mountain laurel are highly esteemed as 

 decorations, foliage in winter, and the flowers in May and June. The 

 bloom appears in large clusters, and various colors are in evidence, white, 

 rose, pink, and numerous combinations. The seeds are ripe in Septem- 

 ber, and the pods which bear them burst soon after. 



The wood of mountain laurel weighs 44.62 pounds per cubic foot. 

 It is hard, strong, rather brittle, of slow growth, brown in color, tinged 

 with red, with lighter colored sapwood. This description applies to the 

 wood of the trunk ; but in nearly all cases where mention is made of the 



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