[2] In Africa, M. laurifolia is found in scattered sites in the northern and eastern Ethiopian Highlands of Eritrea, Ethiopia, northwestern Somaliland, and in the coastal mountains of Djibouti.

[4] It also occurs in a few sites on the southwestern Arabian Peninsula – in stream valleys on the slopes of the Sarawat Mountains in northwestern Yemen and southwestern Saudi Arabia, and on Jabal Ureys and Jabal Gedu, coastal mountains along Yemen's southern coast.

[1] Local communities gather the edible fruit from wild trees, and occasionally use the timber for fuel, construction, and carpentry.

Its distribution is limited to humid sites, and it has suffered from habitat loss, overgrazing, and desertification.

The population in the Sarawat mountains is limited to a few stream valleys (wadis).