Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis)
Flowers: Late spring to early summer. Height: Up to 152cm (60in).
Bay leaves were used to make the traditional laurel wreath and garlands worn by emperors, heroes and poets and victorious athletes wore wreaths of laurel leaves in ancient Greece and Rome. (Today, winners of grand prix are still bedecked with laurel wreaths.) It was grown as a decorative evergreen tree, and Henry VIII, at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, seized three loads of bay from the gardens of the Carthusian monastery of Charterhouse in London to replant in his own garden at Hampton Court. As a strewing herb, Bay leaves were commonly sprinkled on the floors to mask odours and to keep moths away, owing to the leaf’s lauric acid content which gives it insecticidal properties.
Medicinal: A remedy for headaches and migraines and to keep the plague at bay.
Culinary: It added flavour to soups and stews. At a Tudor banquet, a boar’s head would be served wrapped in bay leaves, with sprigs of rosemary in its ears and a roasted pippin (apple) stuffed in its open mouth.
Magic & Myth: Bay leaves were used for centuries in witch spells for protection and to prevent someone from being cheated, tricked and harmed by someone with ill intentions. It was also used in spells to protect people from the plague.
