Bay Laurel

Where it grows

Bay laurel is native to the moist hills and gullies of the southern and eastern Mediterranean, from Iberia to the Levant and across to Madeira and the Azores. It survives mild winter frosts but is killed by hard cold, so commercial cultivation is concentrated in Turkey, Morocco, and southern Europe.

How to recognise it

A handsome dense small tree or large shrub with leathery, glossy, lance-shaped dark green leaves that release a distinctive sweet, slightly spicy aroma when crushed. Tiny pale yellow four-petalled flowers appear in small clusters in spring, and female trees produce small, single-seeded purple-black drupes.

Uses

Dried bay leaves are an essential aromatic of Mediterranean and South Asian cooking, added whole to soups, stews, biryanis, and bouquets garnis. Steam distillation of the leaves and berries produces an essential oil used in soaps, perfumery, and traditional pharmacy. The wood was traditionally carved into staves and chess pieces.

In culture

The ancient Greeks crowned victorious athletes, generals, and poets with woven laurel — the daphne of myth, after Apollo’s love who fled into the tree. “Laureate,” “laurels,” and “baccalaureate” all descend from this tradition.