More on Mountain Laurel

I noted a couple of years ago that I like mountain laurel, a native plant that dwells in part shade and likes slopes near water.  It's mountain laurel bloom time again: actually, it's getting toward the end.  The last Sunday in April may have been the peak for the Georgia piedmont, although in higher elevations they'll probably be blooming another couple of weeks.  Below are pictures of some white ones, although I also saw pink when I was in a park in late April.

Apparently it's not edible to many (if any) animals, including deer, but it (and rhododendron) is sometimes known as buck laurel, because deer will often hide in thickets of it: it keeps its leaves here in Georgia, and presumably does farther north, as well.

Other than providing some ornamentation, it may not do much.  However, sometimes nice flowers are enough.