Lady's-slippers and Mountain Laurel

     Pink lady's-slippers and mountain laurel bloom beautifully in rock-floored woodlands during the end of May and into June in southeastern Pennsylvania.  These two native species of lovely vegetation are often associates of each other, the slippers on the dead-leaf, forest floor and the laurel in the shrub layer.  And both these plants are protected by law.  The lady's-slippers today are not common from flower picking and plant digging in the past. 
     Pink lady's-slippers are members of the orchid family.  Each plant grows up to a foot tall, has two oval, basal leaves and one, deep-pink bloom above the leaves.  Each blossom is large and showy, heavily-veined and has a deeply-cleft pouch.  The whole flower does resemble a lady's slipper or an Indian moccasin, which is its other name.
     Pink lady's-slippers grow singly on forest floors or in little, scattered colonies.  They are not everywhere, and uncommon where they do grow, making them a rare treasure when found among the other vegetation of forest floors.
     Mountain laurel shrubs grow up to fifteen feet tall and are quite noticeable in the woods in June during their peak of blooming, even along certain roadsides in woodlands.  Mountain laurel is Pennsylvania's state flower, which is appropriate because, even today, much of the state is wooded.  
     Mountain laurels have evergreen leaves that are shiny and leathery.  Its limbs are gnarled as if tortured as they grew.  But those twisted branches add to the rustic beauty of this woodland shrub.
The pale-pink blooms of mountain laurels are in clusters above clumps of foliage on each woody stem.  Each flower is a half-inch across and cup-shaped.  But I think the groups of flower buds are prettier and more interesting than the blossoms themselves.  Those raised buds are strongly ribbed, and look much like little icing decorations on icing of cakes.                      
     Mountain laurel shrubs often form thickets of themselves in the woods and along certain roads in the woodlands.  And, interestingly, when people build homes in the woods, many of them recognize the beauties of these laurels and allow them to remain in their patches of growth. 
     Pink lady's-slippers and mountain laurels are blooming right now in Pennsylvania's woods.  The laurels' flowers can be admired simply by driving along forest roads, but the lady's-slippers can be enjoyed only by walking woodland trails.  And remember, both these plants are protected by law!