Ancient Latin name.

Evergreen trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, simple, aromatic. Flowers mostly unisexual, small, insignificant, in axillary clusters. Sepals and petals 4. Female flowers with sterile stamens. Fruit a black berry with a small knob-like cup at the base of the fruit.

Cuttings of mature wood, rarely by seed.

Bay-leaf smell when leaves crushed.

2 species from the Mediterranean and Atlantic islands

Source: Spencer, R. (1997). Lauraceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.