Umbellularia californica
Marble Mts. Wilderness, CA
North Fork of the Salmon River
4000 ft, July 2006

Umbellularia californica
Mariposa Co., west slopes of
Sierra Nevada, March 2006

Umbellularia californica
Kern Co., Sierra Nevada, Breckenridge Mt.
4 May 2011

Trees and Shrubs of Kern County Jan 2013)

Umbellularia californica (Tetranthera californica Hooker & Arnott 1833) Nuttall 1842. California laurel, pepperwood.  Evergreen shrub or tree with fragrant odor, especially when leaves are crushed; leaves alternate, evergreen; flowering in winter to spring (Dec –Apr); flowers inconspicuous, no petals, only sepals, in small clusters (6–8 mm) of 6–10; fruit a ovoid drupe, 2.0–2.5 cm. Transitional dry forests of mixed conifers and broad leaf species below 5,000 ft throughout much of California, Sierra San Pedro Mártir in Baja California to British Columbia. Type from near Monterrey or San Francisco, CA.  California bay forest recognized in MCV2 when >30% relative cover in tree canopy with <30% relative cover of conifers, or >50% relative cover as an overstory component, or >30% if white alder or interior live oak are present. Kern Co.: Occasional colonies just below the “yellow pine” forest on the west slope of Breckenridge Mountain, shaded canyons on south side of Kern Canyon, and Rattlesnake Grade in the Douglas oak woodland in the Greenhorn Range (Twisselmann). Also shaded ravines with Ghost pine along Cow Creek, and live oak at Richbar, 518–1,493 m (CCH).