The Buds and the Bees
Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) was an excellent choice for Pennsylvania's state flower. It is common through most of the state, and it puts on a striking display of pink to white flowers peaking during the first half of June. As delightful as it is to view the display while driving down the highway, one must take a closer look to fully appreciate these unusual flowers.
The buds have an odd shape, sort of like a tiny old-fashioned hand orange juicer with the addition of little, stubby protrusions low on the angles. The angles are the keels in the middle of the developing petals and at the junctures between the petals (which are fused together). Inside the bud, the stamens grow into the protrusions. As the bud grows and opens into a flower, the stamens are bent backwards, with the tip of the anther stuck in the little pockets, forming arches that help give the flowers their distinctive appearance. These anthers (like all anthers of flowers in the heath family) are tubular, with two pores at the tip from which the pollen emerges.
When a bee visits the flower to drink of its nectar, it deforms the bowed stamens, resulting in the anthers being dislodged from the pockets in the petals. The tension in the stamens throws the anther toward the back of the bee, and the pollen is thrust out of the pore and onto to the hairy abdomen of the bee, which happy with the nectar but desiring more, gladly transports the pollen to another flower.
Mountain
laurel is abundant at WPC's Bear Run Nature Preserve, flowering most profusely
along Bear Run itself, and in other places where it is exposed to sunlight.
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