If you didn't smell anything when you tore it up, it's not bay! The raw leaves are powerful. Recipes for soups and sauces usually have one leaf that you fish out before serving. I put a local one ripped in my spaghetti sauce recipe (back before cooking for lowfat wife and picky bland-loving kids) and the flavor was just over the top. With hindsight the recipe needed a lot more garlic to keep it in check.
That was from a hike around Auburn, I think, quite some years ago now. I've always meant to find a tree around Lake Natoma near my house but never slowed down enough to check them all. There are a lot of other trees with similar looking leaves
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Genesis 49:16-17