Mountain Laurel Buds
by Carla Parris
Title
Mountain Laurel Buds
Artist
Carla Parris
Medium
Photograph - Digital Photograph
Description
Mountain laurels are evergreen shrubs which grace the forest floors and mountainsides of north Georgia and North Carolina.
Mountain laurel flowers are star-shaped beauties whose fused petals have distinctive symmetrical markings. The blossoms range in color from white, to pale pinks, to bright pinks, to rich reds.
The buds of mountain laurels are adorable! As seen here, they resemble tiny parasols, or miniature mushrooms. These lipstick pink buds will soon open into a dense cluster of bright, beautiful flowers.
Mountain laurels, also called calico bush, spoonwood, ivybush, sheep laurel, and lambkill, are members of the heather family, as are rhododendrons, azaleas, and blueberries.
Mountain laurels have an unique method of dispersing pollen. Their stamen have delicate filaments which grow arched downward, and get caught under the rim of the bell-shaped blooms where they are held in tension until being released by an insect landing on the stamen. This movement disperses the pollen, flinging it onto the pollinating insect and beyond.
This cluster of mountain laurel buds was photographed in a hillside residential garden in Otto, North Carolina in May, 2018.
Uploaded
May 20th, 2018
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Viewed 371 Times - Last Visitor from Ottawa, ON - Canada on 04/25/2024 at 4:17 PM
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