Beyond their culinary uses, bay leaves hold cultural and historical importance. In ancient Greece and Rome, bay laurel wreaths symbolized victory and honor, adorning the heads of leaders and athletes.

Photo by Magali Gauthier. A bay laurel, left, grows right up again an oak tree, right, along Todo El Mundo in Woodside on Dec. 13, 2024. Photo by Magali Gauthier.

Bay leaves, extracted from the bay laurel tree, have been used in various world cuisines like Indian and Mediterranean. They are believed to add a strong taste, a combination of pine, clove ...

Savvy cooks understand the importance of using bay leaves in soups, stews and sauces. Savvy gardeners know just how big a bay leaf tree can grow — up to 50-feet tall and 30-feet wide.

Last spring, volunteers in Napa County sampled 43 bay laurel trees for the presence of Sudden Oak Death or SOD, the killer of millions of oaks and tanoaks. The good news is there were no positives ...