Last year was quite disappointing for Mountain Laurel-Kalmia latifolia blooms. I have two favorite locations which have a multitude of these shrubs and both were very meager for some reason. Honestly I don't remember whether we were in our drought last year during June. But there were few flowers. This year is back to how I envision it as I wait for June to roll around. Lots to choose from and I might post a few more and chance boring you with repeated subjects...just like bullfrogs. 

For those who aren't already familiar with this plant's method of pollination, all the stamens that you see arranged around the perimeter of the petals are "spring" loaded. When a pollinator comes looking for pollen and touches one it springs down on its back depositing grains to be delivered to the next bloom. These filamented stamens have their anthers stuck inside a groove in the petal and when released do so like little catapults moving at a very high speed according to a study by several researcher as presented in this article.
Here's a closer look at the apparatus. Nice and fresh and ready to be sprung.

As I am not a scientist and my mantra is to do no harm I did not perform my own experiment since it would be a waste of pollen. There is a short video of the grains being launched in the article.
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