Plant Camphor

Spice:

Camphor

Botanical Name:

Camphora officinarum

Botany:

Camphora officinarum grows up to 20–30 m (66–98 ft) tall. In Japan, where the tree is called kusunoki, five camphor trees are known with a trunk circumference above 20 m (66 ft), with the largest individual, Kamō no Ōkusu (蒲生の大楠, "Great camphor of Kamō"), reaching 24.22 m (79+1⁄2 ft). The leaves have a glossy, waxy appearance and smell of camphor when crushed. In spring, it produces bright green foliage with masses of very small white fragrant flowers from which its common namesake "smells good tree" in Chinese 香樟 xiang zhang was given. It produces clusters of black, berry-like fruit around 1 cm (3⁄8 in) in diameter. Its pale bark is very rough and fissured vertically.

Cultivation:

N/A

Wikipedia URL:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camphora_officinarum