Laurus nobilis L.
Eng.: Bay leaf tree, bay tree, laurel. Spa.: Laurel común. Fre.: Laurier sauce, laurier d’Apollon. Ara.: Sshager el ghar, chejrate sidna-mussa, chajarat sidna mussa, errand, rend, rund, habb r’ar (the fruit). Tam.: Taselt.
Small evergreen, dioecious tree, up to 10 m in height, dense foliage and irregular appearance. Trunk ± straight, with smooth and very thin bark, brown-greenish or greyish in colour. Branches erect. Branchlets glabrous, green and lustrous, the younger ones with reddish tints. Leaves (5-16 × 2-8 cm) coriaceous, oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, margin entire and slightly wavy, the upper side dark green in colour and slightly lighter on the underside; they grow opposite on a short pedicel (0.5-1.5 cm). Male flowers grouped in a kind of umbel in the leaf axil, formed by 4 petaloid pieces (3-4.5 × 1.5-2 mm) oblong, yellowish-white in colour, with 8-14 stamens. Female flowers very similar, but instead of stamens they have 4 sterile filaments that are born around a green subsessile ovary. Fruit (10-20 mm) ovoid, fleshy berry, black.
Flowering:
In April.
Fruiting:
September to October.
Habitat:
Forests, thickets, rocky outcrops and shores, in subhumid to hyperhumid bioclimate, rarer in dry areas, where it grows along water courses and other areas with relatively high edaphic moisture. Present from sea level to 1,800 m.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region. In North Africa it has not been cultivated as in Europe, so its populations are generally native: central-western Rif, all across the Tellian Atlas in Algeria, north of Tunisia and the mountainous NE of Libya (Mount Akhdar).
Conservation status:
Rare but widely distributed species. Currently, it is not assessed at a global level on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. However, given the state of the North African populations, small and fragmented, these species could be given a threat category.