Bay laurel flower - Chabot Regional Park
Image by marymactavish
This is the tiny, lovely flower of Umbellularia californica
Known by a variety of names throughout its range. In California, it's "California bay laurel" or just "bay laurel."
Good articles are at:
www.paleotechnics.com/Articles/Bayarticle.html
dixiesd.marin.k12.ca.us/dixieschool/Pages/naturetrail/bay...
www.laspilitas.com/plants/682.htm
This is one of my favorite trees, growing in a huge variety of ways and habitats. It loves the California foothills. In shadier settings, like in Huckleberry Regional Preserve behind Oakland, it reaches for light between the other trees, and becomes tall and slender, leaves high above the forest floor. I saw one, there, that had fallen down the hill across the trail, its roots stuck in the hillside, its crown resting below. It was held off the trail by its branches and the shape of the hill high enough for people to walk beneath, and the only branches that seemed to be actively growing were growing straight up, like individual trees sprouting from the arch of the fallen trunk, reaching for the sky on their own. In sunnier spots, it grows big and bushy. The trunk gets thick and lichenous. It's a strong, versatile, supple tree. The leaves can be used in cooking, but are much stronger than classic bay, it's a good idea to experiment, but to use much less than one would use of bay leaves from the store. On very hot days, I can be uncomfortable hiking around these trees (as around eucalyptus or pine) as the scent can be strong enough to give me a headache.
I'm not sure what the musty black stuff is on the leaves. Some leaves have a lot, some a little, some none. I think it's a fungus that bays get.
This, and some of my other bay laurel photos, have been featured on Botany Photo of the Day. If you have plant photos that would be appropriate there, please go check the pool and submit your photos.
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