PlantFiles: Camphor Tree, Camphor Laurel
Cinnamomum camphora

These trees were planted by the city long ago. My house is 97 years old. We can't knock down these trees. We will get fined. They do look beautiful but what a mess. They drop leaves, twigs, branches, seeds all year round. Killing our grass. Hard to find plants to grow underneath the tree. I have a wandering jew and violets that seem to be doing okay.

This is the most beautiful tree in the neighborhood. It's been growing for about 35 years and is the best shade tree ever.

Have a large Camphor in our backyard. This past year - 1/2 of it died. Not sure why - maybe root rot? Really liked the shade - now not sure what to do. 1/2 of the tree is okay. Any idease would be nice. Thanks.

I ran across this site looking for seeds to plant a camphor tree. The root problems, I wasn't aware of and now I am working on the pro's & con's. I was surprised by the comments. The reasons I wanted this tree was for shade, but more importantly- Cooking, medincinal purposes(internal and external), bug repellant.
Camphor is readily absorbed through the skin and produces a feeling of cooling similar to that of menthol and acts as slight local anesthetic and antimicrobial substance. There are anti-itch gel and cooling gels with camphor as the active ingredient. Camphor is an active ingredient in vapor-steam products, such as Vicks VapoRub, and it is effective as a cough suppressant. It may also be administered orally in small quantities (50 mg) for minor heart symptoms and fatigue.

I have several of these trees along my fence. They are moderate growers in California. They do drop leaves all year round and small sticks. They are messy. However I would rather have them than a tree that drops all their leaves at the same time. They do tend to be wasp collectors, so I check the trees often in the summer to make sure that there arn't any wasp nests in them. They are fragrant. Not my favorite scent from a tree but it's ok.

This tree should not be planted. It's a shame it's sold by some nurseries like Lowe's, not because it's a desirable tree, but because they know clueless people will buy it not knowing this is an invasive, very large, hard to remove tree. A good substitute that's much better looking, also evergreen, that can attracts birds is the Cherry Laurel.

A few Camphor trees don't seem to get large but usually they all get VERY large, some huge like oaks. This tree is somewhat "cute" when young but as it matures most look ugly. If you don't pull out seedlings in an unattended corner of the yard or your neighbor doesn't pay attention in no time you're gonna have a tree that's going to be hard to remove.

The only possible good point is at least in Central Florida sometimes it attracts a few hungry wintering Robins but there are many better trees to attract birds! Please don't plant this!

Plants like people have good and bad points. Clearly this tree should not be planted along streets and sidewalks nor in small gardens. In California, it does not grow as fast as in Florida and is resistant to oak-root fungus, a major plus. For warmer climates it is an evergreen treen which is quite handsome year around. It is not nearly as messy as a Eucalyptus for example. In the right setting and the right climate, it is a beautiful tree year around and is extremely hardy.

Like others have said, this is a very agressive invasive tree. It is a very soft wood and provides good shade, but if i tried to pull up every sapling i'd be busy every day for about an hour or 2. i have three camphor trees in my yard. the saplings get into my beds and try and take over everything and the trees, being rather large, shed alot of leaves all year round [and seeds, too, obviously]. the only things good about them are
1. they provide good shade because they are such fast growers
2. the bend in the florida hurricane winds [but break, too, sometimes!]
3. every year huge flocks of birds come to eat the seeds and the birds are so numerous, it sounds like rain.

Where I live in Australia it is classified as a noxtious weed.
The tree does have a use once cut down, the wood is used to create linen chests as the scent keeps away moths. This practice was started by pioneers and carried on today by industrious individuals who cut down the tree, season the wood and sell the chests at local markets. A very practical use for the tree.

Big messy tree continually dropping sticks and leaves PLUS it has a mat of invasive fibrous roots. Only vigorous, drought tolerant plants survive beneath it--I have been successful with Helleborus argutifolius or helleborus corsicus and of course, ivy. I am now trying some eurphorbias. I have dug new beds in my garden 20 ft away from the trunk only to find the mesh of these roots invading the beds once they got regular water. The roots smell strongly of camphor so it is easy to id them.

Camphor Tree, Camphor Laurel Cinnamomum camphora is naturalized in Texas and other States and is considered an invasive plant in Texas.

My near neighbor (zip 32926) has a large shady Camphor Tree along the Indian River of East Central Florida-Sharpes. It smells so good that I was shopping for one myself...until I read other comments on this page...and thank goodness I did as I do not want any part of furthering a "class 1 invasive" in Florida by growing one in my yard. I will visit my wonderful neighbor more often to enjoy this tree from time to time. My first experience on this site has gleaned valuable information!!! I will mention that this particular tree did very well on direct waterfront through four hurricanes over two years with no visible loss of branches.

I love this tree. It was about 1 foot tall when I moved into my home. For 3 or 4 years, I pruned it for a bonsai appearance, then I let it go. Now, I have a wonderful shade tree. During hurricane Ivan, I barely lost any leaves and we were on the Eastern (worst) side of the eye. It wasn't until a year after Ivan that I noticed babies finally coming up all over. I've transplanted them all over to take place of the trees I lost in the hurricane and to bring shade to the house to keep it cooler. The leaves make a wonderful sound in the breeze and they never fall off during Winter. My favorite tree. Great shade with no raking.

Officially I am in zone 8b, but these grow only under the canopy cover of big evergreen oaks, live and laurel oaks. I'm on an exposed site and maybe it's a cold microclimate. There are two big ones in nearby Hawthorne, at least: you can see them in the yard of a house off 69th (Lake) Avenue, and you can see that they have been damaged by freezes in the past. They aren't really hardy enough for here, but are still a bit of a pest: a little further south they are ubiquitous and unstoppable. The wood is pretty good as a furnture hardwood; owners of big old trees (and they get FAT trunks fairly young, with lots of lumber in them) here or anywhere where the tree is a pest really should have them cut down and sawn into nice, wide boards. Do woodworkers a favor and also kill a source of fresh seeds.

I didn't realize how invasive these trees were until I started thinning the woods on my property. I have found many many saplings and have quite a few larger ones too. They will all be eventually removed. Some people like the smell of the wood, but I personally think it stinks. The dried leaves contain oil and are very flammable.

There is NO stopping this tree! I have cut down the larger ones that were in my yard when I bought my property three years ago. They still send up shoots from any portion of the remaining stump or roots. Nearby trees in neighbors' yards and trees growing in the wild send seeds into my yard. Every seed seems to sprout wheresoever it lands.

I had a profusely sprouting stump from a tree I cut down in the area where I wanted to build a pump house. I burned the camphor tree stump for several hours and hacked it with an axe after burning. I used masonite peg board in the floor of the pump house to allow some aeration under it (I designed the pump house to be raised on open cinder blocks so that my toads would have a good winter home -- gotta' help out your friends!). Yesterday, I found sprouts of the thoroughly blackened, massacred camphor tree stump finding their way up from the bowels of darkness through the tiny holes in the masonite peg board! Aaaarrrrggghhh!

Having respect for all living things, I've left one camphor tree stump to sprout where it stands, but I prune it often to keep it about 2 ft high and compact in size and to stop any flowers and seeds from forming. Due to its fast growth, it may have value as a topiary plant if pruned creatively. I've potted up some camphor tree seedlings as an experiment in seeing if they will grow in a confined root space. They will, and tend to grow only as large as the root space will allow, so they may have some use for Bonsai growers.

It seems to me that this would make an excellent, indestructible indoor plant for apartment dwellers since it will grow in deep shade or full sun, survives both drought and overwatering and any other neglect or abuse it may receive, and can be pruned to any size without adverse effects. I'm thinking of starting a business to ship the plants to unsuspecting urban apartment dwellers as an alternative to the ubiquitous Ficus benjamina. I can find a few thousand seedlings in my yard for anyone that wants a camphor tree grove in their condo or apartment.

Camphor trees are big trees with dense canopies, they are very brittle and easily damaged during storms and hurricanes. They are listed as a Category I of most invasive plants by the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council. These trees should not be planted in Florida.

On top of all the negatives about this tree one must say that the fragrance of crushed leaves and cut wood is very pleasant. Here in San Diego it is green all year and sheds leaves, twigs and branches incessantly in great quantities. Very messy. I don't know why the city planted them along the streets!

This tree can become the most beautiful tree, with out blooming a flower when planted correctly. All of the negative comments about his tree are true! It can grow into a tree that is massive and beautiful, but it needs thought before planting. In central Florida zone 9, this tree keeps it's leaves on year 'round, and being in a rural area most people have enough yard "space" to plant Camphor Trees. Planted at the end of a property line, or at the entrance of a long drive-way can become very attractive with a Camphor Tree, but they do need the room to grow. I have one in my yard that I prune to so that it does not grow over my home, and I have never heard of this type of Camphor to cause damage from broken limbs. The best part of this type of Camphor is the SHADE! For that reason I have this tree in my yard. It can get very hot and humid and dry where I live, and the shade of this tree gives my yard the protection it needs without becoming too dark. On a hot day, the temperature feels ten degrees cooler under a Camphor Tree!

The camphor aroma is good to repel insects and other pests. That´s mainly because camphor has carcinogenic elements, and may cause cancer in humans too after long exposures.

The Camphor Tree is a Category I Exotic Pest Plant in Florida. It comes up everywhere. They are more easily disposed of when seedlings. Full grown trees are brittle and large branches can come crashing down. This is true of many fast growing trees. The ripe fruits stain sidewalks and driveways.

The tree is a designated weed species through much of Australia. We had one removed 5 years ago and are still getting suckers from roots which weren't removed at the time because of other structures in the soil. Suckering had not been a problem until then. They are very herbicide resistant and manual removal has been all that works. The leaves and wood do smell wonderful however.

These trees appear abundantly in Berkeley and El Cerrito, California (Northern Region.) They send a lot of new shoots from the base of the tree each spring. They have created havoc by heaving the sidewalks from root growth and regular (every three years) sidewalks have to be repaired and the roots cut back. They are used as a shade tree on many residential streets. They shed many leaves in the spring and summer. They require frequent thinning and topping to stay out of the electrical wiring and to eliminate dead branches from the bowl of the tree.