Mountain Laurel, Sigel, PA Edward Frank
June 14, 2006

ENTS

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Brookville, PA is a small town about 15 miles south of Cook Forest in western Pennsylvania.  In the third week of June the town celebrates the Western Pennsylvania Laurel Festival. This is the 68th year of celebrating the annual event.  It is timed to coincide with the maximum bloom period of the mountain laurel in the forests and fields in the area.  A few miles north and east of the town is a  “Laurel Display”  on property owned by the National Fuel Gas  Company consisting of a several acres of open ground with scattered trees covered by laurel bushes.  

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These are naturally occurring bushes and not a display planted for show.  The trees have been thinned or removed to open the area and some paths cut in order maximize the laurel display.  A dirt road winds and wends its way through the laurel area.  Every year thousands of people make the trek to this out-of-the-way spot to view the laurel blooms.  Today I stopped by to see the laurel fields myself.  The area is covered by hundreds, perhaps thousands of of laurel bushes in bloom.  The laurel bushes are early in their bloom.  Many of the bushes are covered with deep pink blossoms with only scattered flowers.  Others are in full bloom.  Only occasional bushes show a hint of brown among the flowers indicating they are past their peak.  

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Laurel when it first comes out is pink in color.  The more light they receive, the pinker the color.  Those growing in shady areas are almost pure white.  The bushes range in size from tiny sprouts with heads of color, to multistemmed monsters 20+ feet across.  One bush I measured last fall was over 18 feet tall.  

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After leaving the Laurel Display area I drove over to Beartown Rocks about ¼ mile away.  Here were more laurel growing among or atop the building sized boulders.   An open area just below the rocks was a literally covered by a mass of pink and white laurel blooms.  It was as impressive as the National Fuel Gas Laurel Display itself.  I hope my photos show in small part some of the extraordinary sight of these massive displays of  pink and white laurel blooms.

Edward Frank

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photos by Edward Frank
RE: Mountain Laurel   Barry Caselli
  Jun 15, 2006 19:25 PDT 

Mountain Laurel grows throughout most areas of the New Jersey Pine
Barrens. There are some areas here and there where there isn't any, but
that's the exception, not the rule.

Every year, in late May and early June, I'm in amazement as I drive
around because the Laurel is so beautiful. Of course it does sometimes
have bad years, when it's not as pretty as usual.
I get to see a lot of it on my way to work every day.
It also grows up in the Highlands of North Jersey, along with
Rhododendron.

By the way, to my knowledge, if you remove trees from the forests where
Laurels grow, and more sunlight reaches the forest floor, the Laurels
will get stunted. They like growing in at least partial shade. This is
what I've heard.
Barry

RE: Mountain Laurel   Edward Frank
  Jun 15, 2006 19:35 PDT 

Barry,

This area has been open for years and has the biggest laurel I have seen
anywhere in the woods around here. The biggest documented at Cook
Forest is only about 12 feet tall. There are dozens in this more open
environment that are taller than that and likely have bigger spreads
between their multiple stems. In the center are sections with trees and
the laurel there is large, but still not as big as the bushes in the
more open areas. The biggest are growing in the open surrounded by
grass as if growing in a lawn. It might have something to do with the
availability of water. If water were a problem, then shade would reduce
water stress on the laurels, but here that does not seem to be a
problem.

Ed
Re: Mountain Laurel   Michele Wilson
  Jun 18, 2006 11:22 PDT 

I decided years and years ago that God had the most fun "painting" laurel
flowers. They are amazing in their detail. Tiny little spots of pink and
fuschia, etc., the delicateness of it all always brings a smile to my face
as I'm busy tripping over the damn stems all twisty and turny, windy and
wendy... I figure that God had chosen to give us such a wonderfully artful
display of his talents to help make up for the son-of-a-gunness of the stem
growth habit he also gave us... to help house some of his critters and... to
help keep us humbled, of course.
Michele

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TOPIC: Laurel Fields
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/6654504b43b2a57a?hl=en
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== 1 of 2 ==
Date: Tues, Jun 24 2008 1:11 pm
From: "Edward Frank"


ENTS,

Yeserday I visited a place near Sigel, PA caled the Gas Compan Laurel Fields. This is an area of natural laurel bushes from which most of the surrounding vegetation and trees have been removed. It has been kept in this park-like state since well before I visited it as a child. The laurel bushes growing in the open are large and burst into a mass of flowers in mid June every year.

The flowers are pinker in full sun and white in shaded areas. The local community of Brookville has an anual Laurel Festival to celebraste the season. I have measured laurel bushes in the area to 18' 4" feet high. http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/penna/laurelfields/laurel_pole.htm There are many in this same height range.

A previous trip was also posted from the bloomin 2006: http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/penna/laurel06/mountain_laurel.htm


Another visitor to the area

Ed Frank


== 2 of 2 ==
Date: Tues, Jun 24 2008 9:03 pm
From: James Parton


Ed,

What would our forests be without Mountain Laurel? I could not
imagine the Southern Appalachians without it.

James P.