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Mountain Laurel

#Mountain Laurel #flowers #nature #plants

Audra State Park, which straddles the Middle Fork River just to the east of Buckhannon, is most famous for the enormous sandstone outcroppings that jut from the river's banks and the reef-like clarity of its brisk pools and rapids. It's an ideal spot to beat the heat from an oppressive (almost summer) day. Added bonus: in early June, smooth azalea (Rhododendron arborescens), also known as sweet azalea, starts to bloom along the moist slopes and river banks of the Appalachian Mountains from Pennsylvania to Tennessee.

From top: The tiny white flowers of a partridgeberry (Mitchella repens) vine; mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), just now reaching peak bloom in the local mountains; yellow star grass (Hypoxis hirsuta), also known as common goldstar, which loves rocky nooks along sandy river banks; tassle-rue (Trautvetteria caroliniensis), also known as Carolina bugbane and false bugbane, a buttercup with lovely, but poisonous, palmately-divided foliage; smooth azalea, a knockout rhododendron sporting pink-tinged white flowers with red stamens and lush, dark-green foliage; the brilliant red fruit of common ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius); seedbox (Ludwigia alternifolia), a wetlands-loving plant with distinctive, cube-like seeds; and finally, another trail rescue: a very attractive and docile eastern milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum), which happens to be a personal favorite of mine from the snake-hunting days of my youth, many centuries ago.