I'm a woodworker trying my best to specialize in fallen trees and limbs (don't like killing flora), so I was excited to find a whole tree fallen in my LA neighborhood after a big windstorm. The city cut it up, and I hauled it away, taking some leaves and flowers with me to help ID it. I've been trying for weeks but can't find it, and a few other forums-worth of helpers are stumped, too! The wood and sap are very fragrant. They have a spicy smell, along the lines of an oregano or basil. It smells like something you'd put in pasta sauce. Someone though it was a California Bay Laurel (aka Oregon Myrtle), but I've checked, and the flowers and leaves are quite different, and the wood texture seemed a bit off as well. I've been through lots of laurels, and it just doesn't seem to be one. It's a full tree, though. All the wood in the shot with me, including the large stump I'm resting on are from the one fallen tree. That stump weighs upwards of 200-250lbs as well. I'm a big, strong guy, and I just couldn't lift it for more than a few seconds, even with everything I had in me. Also, it has very thick, sticky sap. It feels slick and slimy at first, but quickly dries, and then is one of the stickiest, most awful saps I've felt. You can see in the photos that my arms and hands are a mess from moving the logs around. The sap leaks through the bark itself, though it doesn't seem to be damaged, making it hard to find a handhold where you won't get a blotch of sap on you, and then you need citrus-based goo/sticker lifter to get it off. It will not wash off with soap and water, ever. Any ideas? I attached several images while posting, but they don't seem to be showing up. I found the attachments section, and they're all there, but still processing. In the event they never show up, and/or just as a bonus, here's a bunch of flickr pics of the find, with leaf and flower closeups, as well as good shots of how much tree there was, and what the pieces look like, and here's some cross sections of the stump and limbs, as I prepared to seal them against checking (splitting radially while drying for use in woodworking).
Found this note re the smell of the California Bay Laurel and some pics. I don't think it is it unless there is another version. "The leaves emit a powerful camphor-like scent when bruised. So strong is the aroma that it can cause headaches and dizziness. The leaves are harvested commercially in California and sold as a bay-leaf substitute. A very large and beautiful tree fruited regularly at Kew, producing viable seed, until it was blown down in the severe storms of October " http://fossilflowers.com/taxpage/0/genus/Umbellularia.html Liz
Liz - Thanks for the info. Looks like wind takes these things down pretty easily. The one I got didn't seem to have a very strong root system. David - THAT'S IT! Quite an amazing bit of sleuthing work, in my opinion. I looked up the scientific name, and common name, and browsed tons of info on both, and everything everywhere was a match. Excellent work, and thank you so much! Some day I'll learn how you folks do that :)