CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY TREE STUDY KIT
CALIFORNIA TORREYA (also called California Nutmeg)
Background information:
- California torreya is in the yew family.
(It got its name because the inner seed looks like a nutmeg but it has no relationship to
the tree which bears the seed used for the spice nutmeg which is in the family Myristicaceae.)
- They can grow 60 feet tall.
- It is unusual for a conifer (tree with needles) to have a seed like this instead of a cone.
- If children have the opportunity to touch a nutmeg leaf they will feel SHARP spines at the tips of the needles.
- Native Americans used them for tattooing. A design was drawn
on the face with poison oak juice and then soot was pricked in with nutmeg
needles resulting in a blue-green tattoo.