Pennsylvania State Flower
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The legislature considered the proposal in 1927 to adopt a state flower.
After a lengthy discussion, they decided not to act on it. By this time, most states had official flowers. Many Pennsylvanians wanted to join the club, but they could never agree on what flower to adopt. By 1933, they had finally narrowed the field to two candidates. Residents of western Pennsylvania supported the wild honeysuckle, also known as wild azalea and pinkster. Eastern Pennsylvanians rallied behind the Mountain Laurel. The House of Representatives voted in favor of the Honeysuckle. The next day, they voted for the Mountain Laurel! The bills moved up to the Senate, which repeated the performance. It looked like the Governor would have to make the final decision. But he decided to let his wife make the decision! She chose the Mountain Laurel, which was officially adopted on May 5, 1933. The Mountain Laurel was discovered in the middle of the eighteenth century by a Swedish traveler named Peter Kalm. He sent specimens across the Atlantic to the famed botanist Linnaeus. Linnaeus named the shrub Kalmia Latifolia in honor of Kalm. The Mountain Laurel's pinkish blooms add color to Pennsylvania in mid-June. It is also the state flower of Connecticut. Mountain Laurel is an evergreen shrub. It has leathery leaves which are poisonous to livestock. "The Swedes have named it [the spoon tree], because the Indians used to make their spoons and trowels of its wood." |
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