Did you check for gophers? Sudden death is suspicious. It doesn't happen to be blocking a neighbor's view of the ocean or anything, does it--something that would motivate a two-legged rather than a 4 legged pest?

That is an interesting mystery. They grow wild in the hills around here and do fine without any water at all, even this parched year.

...only pests up here are developers and contracters who work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. Lots of healthy shrubs around the Laurel including ceanothus, lavenders, cistus, vitex agnus castus and others. No evidence of gophers and no pests visible on outside of plant.

Isn't it part of the Rhus family??? I have several native Rhus ovata (sugar bush) and they are having some sort of decline (they are native on my property). I noticed when traveling Ortega Highway in San Juan Capistrano that the sumacs and sugar bushes appeared to be dying, having large areas that were just turning brown. I asked at Tree of Life Nursery (on Ortega) and they thought it was due to the 7-day freeze we had and they were hopeful that they would recover. Some of mine have a little new growth but others are still pretty dead looking.

Does this sound like what yours is doing????

sorry about the lengthy delay but because of some wise-guy at my work place (a public library) I cannot log in to comment where I sit at a computer and think of gardening all day long. It is in the rhus family (laurina) and I have a sugar bush and lemonade berry doing well on the other side of my garden. To further muddy the waters there is a trunk of the Laurel Sumac looking fine but the main two trunks look healthy except for dead leaves on all the branches. This shrub has been healthy for twelve years at least and just now goes belly up?! If it can make it in any form I want to keep it but now wonder if I should just cut it to the stump and pray.

Do your natives rely on rain water only? You know this was a horrible winter.....3 inches at my place in Temecula. I, personally, never give up on anything. DH wonders why we have such a large plant hospital...LOL. Maybe you should just give it time and if it is suffering from the dry winter a little water....?

I'll take the soundest garden advise there is and be patient. That and some water.
It's so dry up here the trees are whistling for dogs.

Whatever happend to these trees? I am seeing a similar pattern with about 5 sugar bushes on the property where I work