In Africa, M. laurifolia is found in scattered sites in the northern and eastern Ethiopian Highlands of Eritrea, Ethiopia, and northwestern Somaliland, and in the coastal mountains of Djibouti. 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. In Jabal Ureys and Jabal Gedu, M. laurifolia occurs in small enclaves of fog forest where the coastal mountains intercept moisture-bearing winds from the Arabian Sea.