Prunus lusitanica L.

An evergreen shrub of wide, bushy form, usually 10 to 20 ft, but occasionally 40 to 50 ft high, more in diameter; young branches quite glabrous and very dark. Leaves ovate or oval, 21⁄2 to 5 in. long, 11⁄4 to 2 in. wide, quite glabrous on both surfaces, very dark, glossy green above, paler below, shallowly roundish toothed. Racemes produced in June from the ends of the previous summer’s shoots, and from the axils of their leaves, 6 to 10 in. long, 1 to 11⁄4 in. through, more or less erect. Flowers white, 1⁄3 to 1⁄2 in. across, calyx cup-shaped, with shallow, rounded lobes; stalk 1⁄3 in. long. Fruits dark purple, 1⁄3 in. long, cone-shaped, pointed.

Native of Spain and Portugal; in cultivation 1648. In all but the coldest parts of Great Britain the Portugal laurel is one of the handsomest and most effective of evergreens. It should be grown as isolated specimens, especially in thinly wooded parts of the grounds. Although it is chiefly valued for the luxuriance of its rich green lustrous foliage, it has some merit as a flowering shrub, for in June it produces an extraordinary profusion of long, slender racemes, whose only defect is that the flowers are rather dull. It is hardier than the cherry laurel, and on warm, well-drained soil withstands thirty-two degrees of frost without being in the least affected. A serious defect of the Portugal laurel is that it is susceptible to Silver Leaf disease (Stereum purpureum), for which see Dictionary of Gardening, Vol. 4, p. 1957).