GORP - Grand Floral Parade - Mountain Laurel - Wildflowers Along the Appalachian Trail


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Grand Floral Parade
Wildflowers Along the Appalachian Trail
Mountain Laurel

Excerpted from
The Appalachian Trail:
A Visitor's Companion
by Leonard M. Adkins

Latin name: Kalmia latifolia
Flower: Growing in clusters, the nearly one-inch, cup-shaped flowers vary from pink to white. Radiating from the center, the flower's ten anthers create a distinctive spoke design.
Average bloom season: May to July
Leaves and stems: The shrub usually grows from five to ten feet in height, but can, on rare occasions, reach as high as thirty-five feet. The evergreen leaves are sometimes confused with rhododendron leaves, but are smaller and more slender.
Range in AT states: Georgia to portions of New England
Most likely AT locations: Near Bull Gap in Georgia; on Little Rock Knob on the Tennessee/North Carolina border; throughout Michaux State Forest in Pennsylvania; near Benedict Pond and upon the north slope of Race Mountain in Massachusetts.

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