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

See Examples For:

mountain laurel

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

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

The mountain laurel by the lodge was shaking.

From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George