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Red Bay is related to the bay laurel, the tree that provides bay leaf
spice, and its leaves can also be used in cooking. However, similar looking
leaves, for example English laurel (Prunus laurocerasu), can be poisonous.
So it’s safer to get your bay leaf form the grocery store.
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 Red Bay |
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Wildlife aren’t allowed in the grocery store, but many songbirds, wild turkey,
bobwhite quail, white-tailed deer, and black bear take advantage of the free
food the leaves and fruit of red bay provide. Bobwhite quail in particular eat
a lot of red bays seeds in the fall and winter. Red bay also provides food for
the Palamedes swallowtail and Spicebrush swallowtail butterflies.
Red bay prefers rich, moist sites along streams and swamp borders and ranges along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from Virginia to east Texas. Red bay is often found growing with sweetbay, swamp tupelo, pond pine, bald cypress, red maple, sweetgum, and loblolly-bay. The reddish wood is some times used in interior finishing and boat construction and the tree can make an attractive ornamental.
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