Otherwise known as mountain laurel. It’s quite beautiful, but apparently highly toxic. Since we found out we’ve tried to keep our dog away from it – just in case.

According to Wikipedia:

Mountain laurel is poisonous to several different animals, including horses, goats, cattle, deer, monkeys, and humans, due to grayanotoxin and arbutin. The green parts of the plant, flowers, twigs, and pollen are all toxic, including food products made from them, such as toxic honey that may produce neurotoxic and gastrointestinal symptoms in humans eating more than a modest amount. Symptoms of toxicity begin to appear about 6 hours following ingestion. Symptoms include irregular or difficulty breathing, anorexia, repeated swallowing, profuse salivation, watering of the eyes and nose, cardiac distress, incoordination, depression, vomiting, frequent defecation, weakness, convulsions, paralysis, coma, and eventually death. Necropsy of animals who have died from spoonwood (Note: an alternative name) poisoning show gastrointestinal hemorrhage.

Taken with a Sony RX-100 M3.