Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Cinnamomum camphora

Flowers. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer B Gray, Atherton, Qld

Fruit and leaves. Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany, photographer RA Howard, China

Trunk. Australian Plant Image Index, photographers RG & FJ Richardson, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, Vic

Tree. Australian Plant Image Index, Murray Fagg, Nimbin to Kyogle Road

Common name

Camphor laurel

Family

Lauraceae

Where found

Forest, woodland, pastures, near old habitations, roadsides, and along streams. Coastal north from Jervis Bay. Ranges north of Berry.

Notes

Introduced tree to 30 m high. Fruit fleshy. Bark greyish brown, rough, scaly, flaky, or fissured, with a camphor odour. Young branchlets cylindrical, hairless, green or reddish-green. Leaves smelling of camphor when rubbed, alternating up the stems or clustered in pseudowhorls, 4.5-11 cm long, 20-60 mm wide, tips with an abrupt long point, upper surface glossy green, lower surface glaucous, sometimes becoming green and slightly glossy in older leaves. Leaf buds enclosed in distinctive overlapping scales when young. Flowers whitish, greenish-white or pale yellowish, with 6 'petals' each 1-3 mm long. Flowers in branched clusters. Flowering mostly spring-summer. Fruit shiny black to purplish-black, at first waxy, globular, 6-10 mm in diameter, seated on a distinctive cup-shaped structure. Fruit ripe Apr-June.

General Biosecurity Duty all NSW.

PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Cinnamomum~camphora (accessed 7 January, 2021)