What’s This? No. 8

Nope, it’s not mutant cotton candy (sorry, Sara). But What’s This? No. 8, from Vermont today (May 27), is fairly easy compared to most of the other What’s This? challenges. Name it and win $5 off any of my outings or workshops. We already have a winner …

A number of folks identified this as the flower of Sheep Laurel (Kalmia angustifolia). It’s a worthy answer. But as you’ll see in the photo above, my hint was in the leaves — slender and opposite. Sheep Laurel leaves are narrowly oval-shaped. The other trick here is that this flower doesn’t yet have its classic Kalmia demeanor. (I suspect that an insect might have opened this flower.) But it’s nonetheless locked and loaded.

Explosive flowers are among the characteristics of Kalmias, which are members of the Heath family (Ericaceae). Their petals are fused into a bowl whose surface has ten pocket-like indentations (showing in an early form around the perimeter of these flowers). Locked into these pockets are stamens, including their pollen-bearing anthers (the stamens at 11 and one-o’clock have escaped). Even when the flower opens completely, the anthers are poised and tense for action. When a bumblebee or other insects visits, it triggers the stamens to snap out and release a shower of pollen. (Note in the comments below that recent winner Sue Cloutier hinted at the answer.) Inquisitive humans can also trigger the shower. Below you’ll see my full image of this early bloom and then an open flower ready for action (with its pistil, um, er, at attention).

Bog Laurel (Kalmia polifolia) / © Bryan Pfeiffer

Bog Laurel (Kalmia polifolia)