Mountain Laurel
Glossy evergreen leaves and clustered pink-white cups patterned with ten pockets identify Connecticut’s state flower.
Artwork inspired by Fidelia Bridges
Each mountain-laurel flower holds its stamens bent into small pockets. When a pollinator trips them, they spring inward and dust the visitor with pollen. Dense evergreen thickets grow on rocky slopes, woodland edges, and acidic soils, creating shelter but also difficult passage.
Every part of the plant contains compounds toxic to people and livestock when eaten, so admiration should remain visual. Do not cut branches from wild colonies or let the showy flowers invite tasting. In gardens, choose locally appropriate stock and allow mature size rather than shearing every shrub into a featureless block.
- Flower
- Five-sided cup with ten pockets
- Leaves
- Broad, leathery, and evergreen
- Connecticut link
- Official state flower
Quick guide
- Look into the cup
- Dark marks and tucked stamens reveal the mechanism.
- Notice the habitat
- Rocky acidic woods explain many dense colonies.
Recognize and observe
- Look into the cup
- Dark marks and tucked stamens reveal the mechanism.
- Notice the habitat
- Rocky acidic woods explain many dense colonies.
- Do not taste
- The entire plant is toxic if ingested.
- Leave wild blooms
- Photograph branches without cutting or trampling the thicket.
Good to know
Mountain laurel is in the heath family with blueberries and rhododendrons, but edible relatives do not make its leaves or flowers safe.
Notice these
- Five-sided cup with ten pockets
- Broad, leathery, and evergreen
- Official state flower