California bay
Umbellularia californica (Hook. & Arn.) Nutt.
- light
- Sun–part
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 16 m
- wide
- 16 m
Lauraceae
Also called California bay laurel, Bay laurel, Oregon myrtle, Pepperwood, Headache Tree
Formerly Drimophyllum pauciflorum, Litsea californica, Oreodaphne californica, Oreodaphne regalis, and 3 more
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- TreeKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- SW. Oregon to Mexico (N. Baja California)Kew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun to part shade (3 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 9.1 m to 23 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Spread
- 9.1 m to 23 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- White, cream, yellowRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -6.7 °C (USDA zone 9a)Read from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (11)
- root
- takápe kakáaka, sokóote, Lo:ko
- Spanish
- Laurel de California
- French
- Laurier de Californie, Myrte de l’Oregon
- Hungarian
- Amerikai babér
- Russian
- Умбеллюлярия
- German
- Kalifornischer Lorbeer
- Chinese
- 加州月桂, 加州桂, 北美木姜子
- Chinese (China)
- 加州月桂
- Finnish
- kalifornianlaakeripuu
- Slovak
- okolíčkovka kalifornská
- Ukrainian
- Умбелюларія каліфорнійська
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, Public domain
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- 3D model: Umbellularia californica (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.