Blooming Mountain Laurel

  Clinton County has its share of Pennsylvania's state flower, the Mountain Laurel.  The lovely Mountain Laurel is in full bloom right now.  Here is a photo of some Mountain Laurel bushes blooming along a woods-road near Cranberry Swamp, Clinton County, Pa

 Here is a photo of clusters of white Mountain Laurel.

 Here is a patch of Mountain Laurel in the woods near the Eagleton Mine Camp Trail.

 Some laurel bushes have white flowers while other laurel have flowers tinged with pink like ones in the photo below.

Mountain Laurel's flowers have an interesting pollination mechanism.  The flower's ten stamens are spring-loaded.  When touched by a bee they are released like a catapult and plaster the visiting bee with pollen.

 Here is a photo of a bumblebee visiting Mountain Laurel flowers.  In the photo below there are untripped flowers to the bumblebee's right and left as well as a trail of five flowers with sprung stamens behind the bumblebee.

I went into more some detail about Mountain Laurel's pollination system on my nature blog.

If you have a home here, are just passing through, or if you come to visit a cabin in Clinton county, be sure to get out on the mountains and take time to enjoy the blooming Mountain Laurel.