West Indian Bay Tree, Bay Rum Tree, Ciliment.

Description:

Evergreen tree up to 15 m high with smooth, whitish, variegated and flaking bark, hard and heavy wood. Leaves simple, entire, opposite in pairs, dark green, leathery, oblong to elliptic, obtuse at the tip, rounded at the base, 15-20 x 5-7 cm, prominent venation, highly aromatic when crushed; inflorescence a compound panicle 5-10 cm long, flowers numerous 3-4 mm long, white; fruit a subglobose to ellipsoid berry, 8-10 mm long, thickly covered with small convex glands, black when ripe. Bark smooth, grey to light brown, peeling off in thin strips; inner bark pinkish; crown dense, columnar, dark green; young branchlets flattened, 4-angled.

Habitat:

In forest on our land at the foot of Mount Scenery ( Volcano ) on Saba, in the Caribbean Sea

Notes:

The leaves of this tree smell DELICIOUS!!!