Camphora officinarum

Common Name: camphor tree

Family: Lauraceae

Common Synonyms: Cinnamomum camphora

USDA Hardiness Zone: 8a-11

Growth Habit: Tree

Origin: Eastern Asia

FISC Category: 1

FDACS Listed Noxious Weed: No

Introduction Date: Earliest Florida specimen vouchered in 1890s

IFAS Assessment:

North: INVASIVE
Central: INVASIVE
South: CAUTION

Glossy leaves and small pedunculate flowers. — FNAI

Camphor tree with bluish-black mature fruits — Brenda Herring

Description

Evergreen tree to 20 m tall. All vegetative parts glabrous, and have strong aroma of camphor. Leaves glossy dark green above and glaucous below, simple, alternate, slightly wavy margin, ovate, 4-10 cm long and 2-5 cm wide. Small flowers, greenish-white to cream colored, in loose panicles. Fruit a small, subglobose, black drupe.

Habitat

Mesic hammock, upland pine, scrub, scrubby flatwoods, floodplain forest, upland hardwood forest, disturbed areas

Comments

Abundant fruits are bird-dispersed.

Control Methods

Manual: Mechanical: Mowing/cutting of smaller seedings is effective and burning can provide good control (IFAS, CAIP)
Chemical: Foliar (2-3% trichlopyr amine or 0.5-2% trichlopyr ester in water, plus 0.25% surfactant), basal bark (30% trichlopyr ester, frill recommended, or smooth bark before applicaiton) 1 foot of trunk from base, and cut-stump (50% trichlopyr amine). [CAIP]
Biological: NA

Control Notes

References

Dave's Garden. 2014. PlantFiles: Camphor Tree, Cinnamomum camphora. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54395/. Accessed on June 20, 2014.

IFAS, Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. 2014. Camphor tree. http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/node/101. Accessed on June 26, 2014.

Langeland, K.A., H.M. Cherry, C.M. McCormick, K.C. Burks. 2008. Identification and Biology of Non-Native Plants in Florida's Natural Areas-Second Edition. IFAS Publication SP 257. University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

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