Pepperwood (aka California bay)
Umbellaria californica
Lauraceae (Laurel Family)
Medicinal Minute with Ginger Webb
I am obsessed with the scent of Pepperwood leaves. I routinely open my jar of dried leaves and inhale just to feel myself back in the redwood forest. Pepperwood is closely related to other aromatic shrubs like Bay Laurel, Spicewood, and Sassafras. I do not work with this plant medicinally since it is not in my ecoregion, but I LOVE IT.
Ginger Webb, Community Herbalist, Botanist, Teacher & Mentor
Ginger Webb has been practicing herbalism for nearly 30 years, as a community herbalist, clinical herbalist, herbal medicine maker, wild plant lover, botanist, and teacher. She has trained scores of people to be herbalists through her programs at Sacred Journey School of Herbalism.
Her mission is to keep alive the craft of herbalism through modeling the age-old wisdom of being in right relationship with the plants, and she teaches her students to be stewards of the Earth and the plants first, and to make medicine only when the plants wholeheartedly provide consent.
