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Cinnamomum camphora
Also called Camphortree, Camphor laurel, Camphor tree, Camphorwood, Japanese Camphor, Japanese Camphortree, Camphor
In Singapore: Camphor Tree, Japanese Camphor Tree, 樟树 (Grown in Singapore)
Camphora officinarum is a large evergreen tree from warm temperate to subtropical East Asia, grown for camphor and timber. It needs a warm, sunny site with room to grow, as it can reach 20 to 30 m tall.
Camphora officinarum is a species of evergreen tree indigenous to warm temperate to subtropical regions of East Asia, including countries such as China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, Japan and India. It is known by various names, most notably the camphor tree, camphorwood or camphor laurel.
The species is native to Japan, Korea, the Ryukyu Islands, and Taiwan. It has been introduced to China south of the Yangtze River, the Himalayas, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, eastern Australia, the southeastern United States, and many other countries.
The species is cultivated for camphor and timber production. The production and shipment of camphor, in a solid, waxy form, was a major industry in Taiwan prior to and during the Japanese colonial era (1895–1945). It was used medicinally and was also an important ingredient in the production of smokeless gunpowder and celluloid. Primitive stills were set up in the mountainous areas in which the tree is usually found. The wood was chipped; these chips were steamed in a retort, allowing the camphor to crystallize on the inside of a crystallization box after the vapour had passed through a cooling chamber. It was then scraped off and packed out to government-run factories for processing and sale. Camphor was one of the most lucrative of several important government monopolies under the Japanese.
Selasian Wood · Cinnamon · Camphora bodinieri · Padang cassia · Laurels · Wild Cinnamon · Saigon cinnamon · Cinnamomum malabatrum · Turougwi · Camphora septentrionalis · Indian bark · Cinnamomum tenuifolium
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Camphora officinarum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
