Cinnamomum camphora

Camphor tree or camphor laurel is in the laurel or Lauraceae family and is native to China south of the Yangtze River, Taiwan, southern Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, and has been introduced to many other countries. It is common at temples and in parks all over Japan, reaching up to 25 m tall. Trees are heavily camphor-scented.

The tree is known for the cultivation of camphor, which was used in medicine and also was an important ingredient in the production of smokeless gunpowder and celluloid.

• Leaves are evergreen, alternate; ovate-elliptic, subleathery, glabrous on both surfaces, 6–12 cm long and 2.5–5.5 cm across, petiole slender, 2-3 cm long, leaves bright green in the spring, becoming darker green on the leaf blade, gray-green and glaucous abaxially [below]; apex is acute.
• Flowers are green-white or yellowish, 3 mm long, flowering in April-
• Fruit is ovoid or sub-globose, purple-black, 6-8 mm in diameter, ripening in mid-summer.
• Bark is yellow-brown, irregularly and longitudinally fissured; branchlets are brownish, glabrous; terminal buds are broadly ovoid.