Re: [CH] Bay Tree

Brent Thompson (brent@hplbct.hpl.hp.com)
Thu, 25 May 2000 10:02:52 -0700 

> An essential ingredient along with Tarragon for Bernaise sauce

I believe I have never seen a recipe for Bernaise sauce which included bay
leaf, but it's been years since I last grew tarragon or made Bernaise
sauce, so maybe I've just forgotten.  But the recipes I find today on the
web are as I remember Bernaise sauce, and none contain any bay leaf.

> Essential Oil	The essential oil is rarely available (used in large scale
> food production) but one of its brothers "Bay Rum" is used in men's hair

Bay Rum is Pimenta racemosa, which is in family Myrtaceae (Order Myrtales,
super-order Rosidae) hence it is "totally" unrelated to Bay Laurel (Laurus
nobilis:Laurales:Magnoliidae).  Bay Rum (Pimenta racemosa) is very closely
related to the spice "allspice" (Pimenta dioica); both are native to the
Caribbean, e.g. Jamaica.  Indeed, Bay Rum is _much_ more closely related to
Eucalyptus (another in Myrtaceae), Proteas (Proteales:Rosidae), and
peaches, plums, and cherries (all in Rosaceae:Rosales:Rosidae) than to Bay
Laurel.

Conversely, Bay Laurel is much more closely related to magnolias, cinnamon,
and Annonaceous fruits like soursop, custard apple, and cherimoya than it
is to Bay Rum.

> Names.
>  Common
> Botanical
> Bay Tree Sweet Bay
> Lauralus nobilis
      ^^ typo

> Size	Very large Tree. Often grown in pots.

"Very large Tree" is a little misleading.  Eucalypts, pine, fir, cedar, and
such trees at well over 100 feet tall are very large trees.
The term "very large tree" could even be used for the several kinds of
oaks, magnolias, and others that grow to 75-100 feet tall.

But all mentions I have found re size of Bay Laurel are consistent with my
experience that it is a smallish tree, meaning usually around 20ft tall or
so, e.g. these just taken from various web sites:
  a) While mature specimens may reach 30 to 40 feet after many decades,
	plants are easily trained and pruned to grow well in pots.
  b) Slow growing shrub to 30 feet
  c) This small tree grows in most of the Mediterranean countries. 
  d) grows up to 40 ft (12 m) high and 30 ft (9 m) wide, but is generally
	smaller in cultivation.
  e) In ideal conditions, the shrub will grow to 25 feet tall and up to 6
	feet across.
  f) Dense, evergreen shrub or tree that grows to 30 feet tall in ground,
	about 6 feet in container.
  g) good for containers or may grow to 40 feet.

> The "Californian Bay" (Umbellularia californiica) should not be used in cooking
                                               ^ typo

Again, a different species, but it is in Lauraceae, hence closely related
to Bay Laurel.  There are commercial spice companies which sell dried
leaves of Umbellularia californica as "Bay Leaf" (properly labelled, too)
rather than Laurus nobilis -- these would probably disagree with the
warning excerpted above.

 ---   Brent