Cinnamomum virens

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information:

Wikipedia links:     Angiosperms > Magnoliids > Laurales > Lauraceae > Cinnamomum virens

Other links:     

Plant  information

Common name:                Red-barked Sassafras

• Also, black sassafras, camphorwood, scentless cinnamon wood, and native camphor laurel

Conservation status:  unknown

Etymology:   

Flowers:                  

• Flowers form on panicles between February and July.

Fruit:                         

• The fruit is a black, fleshy drupe, oval in shape, 10 to 12 mm long, and 6 to 8 mm wide

• The base of the fruit is sunken into a six-sided calyx tube

• The single seed is 8 mm long and 5 mm wide, ripening from August to December

• Fresh seeds should be sown, as they quickly dry out

Leaves:         

• The leaves are simple, opposite on the stem, and elliptical in shape with a blunt tip; they are 5 to 12 cm long, 2 to 3 cm wide, smooth and glossy green above, and duller green below

• They are partially three-veined with the first pair of secondary veins reaching around half the length of the leaf before terminating at the leaf edge

Stem & branches: 

• The trunk is cylindrical and straight, somewhat flanged at the base on larger trees

• Its bark is reddish brown and fairly smooth, but with some 1-cm-sized squares of bark and corky protuberances

• Small branches on this species are usually green and smooth

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A medium-sized tree up to 30 m tall, it has a stem diameter of 60 cm

• The tree's crown is small and not spreading

• Growing in rich volcanic soils or on the poorer sedimentary soils, it is often in association with coachwood

Habitat:   

• It is a rainforest tree 

Distribution:                  

• Growing in the eastern coastal parts of Australia

• Between the Williams River (NSW) and the Main Range National Park in Queensland

Additional notes:     

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamomum_virens (2023)