Persea palustris (Raf.) Sarg.

Tall shrub or tree to 10(–15) m, with thin, gray, fissured bark; twigs densely rusty-villous-tomentose; lvs lanceolate to oblong or oblanceolate, 10–15 cm, evidently and loosely villous or villous-tomentose beneath, but often glabrescent except for the usually persistently hairy midvein; petiole 1–2 cm; infls of axillary, compound dichasia, with numerous fls, the peduncle mostly 2–7 cm long and longer than the petiole; inner tepals 4–5 mm; anthers 4-locular; filaments puberulent; fr black, subglobose to ellipsoid, ca 1 cm; 2n=24. Swamps and wet woods on the coastal plain; Md. to Fla., Tex., and Bahama I. May, June (P. pubescens; P. borbonia var. pubescens) The closely allied but less hairy P. borbonia (L.) Spreng., red bay, with the lvs thinly and closely rufous-strigulose beneath, and with short peduncles scarcely surpassing the petioles, has been attributed to our range but appears to be wholly more southern.