On 19 Mar, 17:51, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
In article ,"Joe K" writes:

|
| Can anyone advise how I can identify a culinary Bay tree please or
| distinguish the culinary from the non-culinary varieties? I have a number
| of Bay trees in the garden and I am reluctant to use the leaves for
| flavouring as I believe use of the non-culinary type can be dangerous.

Crumple a leaf and smell it. A bay smells like, er, bay. The main
thing it could be confused with is Portugal laurel, which will smell
very different.

Bay also has small yellow flowers fairly soon, which are very different
from the small white Rosaceae flowers of Portugal laurel.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

If they are about 2 inches long, are tough and smell of Bay then use
them.

If they don't smell of Bay and are soft then don't use them.

I can think of nothing you could mix up with Bay
David Hill
Abacus Nurseries