Mountain Laurel; Spoon-wood (Kalmia latifolia ) 
is one of the most popular of our beautiful flowering 
shrubs. In the North it grows from 3 to 8 feet in 
height, but in the Southern States it often attains 
heights of 20 to 30 feet. 
The leaves are dark glossy green, pointed at each end 
and oblong in shape; they are arranged alternately 
along the branches and in dense terminal clusters. The 
flowers are very peculiar in their construction, the 
corolla being deep saucer or bowl-shaped, with five 
short, broad lobes; on the outside, around the bottom 
edge of the “ bowl,” are ten small humps, that inside 
the corolla form little pockets to receive the anthers of 
the slender white stamens, curving from the center of 
the blossom like the spokes of a wheel. 
Both moths and bees visit these flowers in quest of 
the little supply of nectar that is secreted about the 
base of the greenish pistil. The flower stems are sticky 
so that only winged insects can get to the interior. 
Laurel is common from N. B. to Ont. and southwards. 
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