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.

---

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

---

Etymology

Origin of mountain laurel

An Americanism dating back to 1750–60

Example Sentences

She has filled a comical ceramic vase that has human features with scavenged mountain laurel, honeysuckle, ferns and maple seedlings and laid a table with stemless goblets and speckled dishes.

From New York Times • Jun. 2, 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

Hebrew for “peak”, Pisgah’s half-million acres stretch up the highest summits in the east, and down potpourri valleys that bloom pink and white in summer with rhododendron and mountain laurel.

From The Guardian • May 25, 2018

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