Mountain Laurel

A Sunday drive showed us that not everything has drowned from the recent 8-10 inches of rain. The mountains on top near the West Virginia line still had mountain laurel offering up a white (and occasional pink) decoration amidst the prevailing greenery.

Mountain laurel is a native North American plant. It's a broadleaf evergreen shrub in the heather family. The mountains are full of them but you only seem them in late May and early June, when the flowers burst out to decorate the mountainsides.

Unfortunately I was not able to photograph any pink laurel. We saw a little of it but by the time I opened my mouth to say, "stop the car," we'd already whizzed past it.

This is my favorite, when you can see the mountain laurel as far back as you can look.

Photos taken with Nikon Coolpix P500.

These pictures were taken on Potts Mountain in Craig County, Va.