California Nutmeg Torreya Tree
The California Nutmeg (T. Californicum, Greene) is a larger tree, handsome in its youthful vigour, in age losing its pyramidal form and becoming round-topped. It is a striking evergreen at any age, with its pale grey bark and its fruits hanging like half-ripe plums among the sprays of prickly, sickle-shaped, linear leaves. The pit of the fruit resembles a nutmeg. A fine grove of these trees is within the borders of the Yosemite Park. Nowhere common, they occur on slopes of the Sierras and Santa Cruz Mountains between 3,000 and 5,000 feet above sea level.