mountain laurel

American  

noun

1. a North American laurel, Kalmia latifolia, having terminal clusters of rose to white flowers: the state flower of Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

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mountain laurel British  

noun

1. Also called: calico bush.  any of various ericaceous shrubs or trees of the genus Kalmia, esp K. latifolia of E North America, which has leathery poisonous leaves and clusters of pink or white flowers

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Etymology

Origin of mountain laurel

An Americanism dating back to 1750–60

Example Sentences

The gardens are home to an important collection of plants in the heath family, including native and nonnative rhododendrons and azaleas, along with blueberries, mountain laurel and others, some of which are rare.

From Washington Post • Mar. 10, 2022

The album is named Laurel Hell, after a folk term for areas of the southern Appalachians, where the mountain laurel grows so close and thickly that it is almost impossible to pass.

From BBC • Feb. 1, 2022

He pushed through the pain and we eventually hiked 55 miles through a tunnel of flowering rhododendron and mountain laurel.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 25, 2021

Like a volcano, it seemed to spit forth its arrangement: a 14-foot-high foundation of gloriously twisted mountain laurel branches covered in lichen, wrapped in foraged invasive greenbrier vines.

From New York Times • Mar. 4, 2020

As I pushed aside the mountain laurel, I saw three two-by-fours and some planks lying across several of the lower limbs of the tree.

From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George