''Cinnamomum'' is a genus of evergreen aromatic trees and shrubs belonging to the laurel family,

Lauraceae Lauraceae, or the laurels, is a plant Family (biology), family that includes the bay laurel, true laurel and its closest relatives. This family comprises about 2850 known species in about 45 genus (biology), genera worldwide. They are dicotyled ...

. The species of ''Cinnamomum'' have aromatic oils in their

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

and

bark Bark may refer to: Common meanings * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Arts and entertainment * ''Bark'' (Jefferson Airplane album), ...

. The genus contains approximately 234 species, distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

and

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

. The genus includes a great number of economically important trees used to produce the spice of

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

. The oldest fossils are known from the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

, however the group reached a peak in terms of diversity during the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

Habitat

This genus is present in the Himalayas and other mountain areas and is present in tropical and subtropical montane rainforests, in the weed-tree forests, in valleys, and mixed forests of coniferous and deciduous broad-leaved trees, from southern China, India, and

. Some species, such as ''

Cinnamomum camphora ''Camphora officinarum'' is a species of evergreen tree indigenous to warm temperate to subtropical regions of East Asia, including countries such as China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. It is known by various names, most notably the camph ...

'', tolerate drought.

Characteristics

All species tested so far are

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Here ''sets of chromosomes'' refers to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, ...

, with the total number of chromosomes being 24. This Lauraceae genus comprises approximately 250 trees and shrubs and most are aromatic. Some trees produce sprouts. The thick, leathery leaves are dark green, lauroid type. Laurophyll or lauroid leaves are characterized by a generous layer of wax, making them glossy in appearance, and narrow, pointed oval in shape with an 'apical mucro', or 'drip tip', which permits the leaves to shed water despite the humidity, allowing respiration from plant. Mostly, the plants present a distinct odor. Their alternate leaves are ovate-elliptic, with margins entire or occasionally repand, with acute apices and broadly cuneate to subrounded bases. Upper leaf surfaces are shiny green to yellowish-green, while the undersides are opaque and lighter in color. Mature leaves are dark green. Young leaves are reddish brown to yellowish-red. The leaves are glabrous on both surfaces or sparsely puberulent beneath only when young; the leaves are mostly triplinerved or sometimes inconspicuously five-nerved, with conspicuous midrib on both surfaces. The axils of lateral nerves and veins are conspicuously bullate above and dome-shaped. Terminal buds are perulate. The axillary panicle is 3.5–7 cm long. It is a genus of

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system comparable with gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy, and contras ...

species, with hermaphrodite flowers, greenish white, white to yellow are glabrous or downy and pale to yellowish brown. Mostly the flowers are small. The perianth is glabrous or puberulent outside and densely pubescent inside. The purplish-black fruit is an ovate, ellipsoidal or subglobose drupe. The perianth-cup in fruit is cupuliform. '' Cinnamomum parthenoxylon'' and''

'' are large evergreen trees that can grow to 30 m in height with trunks 3 m in diameter, with broadly ovate crowns. Terminal buds are broadly ovoid or globular, and covered with sericeous scales. Bark is yellowish-brown with irregular vertical splits. Branches are light brown, cylindrical, and glabrous. Cinnamomum tree in a 10th century Arabic manuscript

Cinnamomum tree in a 10th century Arabic manuscript

The inner bark of several species is used to make the spice

. Other notable species are '' C. tamala'', used as the herb malabathrum (also called'' tejpat'' and Indian bay leaf), and '' C. camphora'', from which

camphor Camphor () is a waxy, colorless solid with a strong aroma. It is classified as a terpenoid and a cyclic ketone. It is found in the wood of the camphor laurel (''Cinnamomum camphora''), a large evergreen tree found in East Asia; and in the kapu ...

is produced.

Accepted species

About 200 species are accepted, including several commercially important ones. A molecular study found that species from the tropical Americas classed in ''Cinnamomum'' were not closely related to the Paleotropical species, and have been reclassified with related species in genus '' Aiouea''. *'' Cinnamomum agasthyamalayanum'' *'' Cinnamomum alibertii'' *'' Cinnamomum alternifolium'' *'' Cinnamomum altissimum'' *'' Cinnamomum anacardium'' *'' Cinnamomum andersonii'' *'' Cinnamomum angustifolium'' *'' Cinnamomum angustitepalum'' *'' Cinnamomum appelianum'' *'' Cinnamomum archboldianum'' *'' Cinnamomum arfakense'' *''

Cinnamomum aromaticum ''Cinnamomum cassia'', called Chinese cassia or Chinese cinnamon, is an evergreen tree originating in southern China and widely cultivated there and elsewhere in South Asia, South and Southeast Asia. It is one of several species of ''Cinnamomum' ...

'' – Chinese cinnamon or cassia (''C. cassia'') *'' Cinnamomum asomicum'' *'' Cinnamomum assamicum'' *'' Cinnamomum aubletii'' *'' Cinnamomum aureofulvum'' *'' Cinnamomum auricolor'' *'' Cinnamomum austrosinense'' *'' Cinnamomum austroyunnanense *''

Cinnamomum baileyanum ''Cinnamomum'' is a genus of evergreen aromatic trees and shrubs belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae. The species of ''Cinnamomum'' have aromatic oils in their Leaf, leaves and bark (botany), bark. The genus contains approximately 234 spec ...

'' *'' Cinnamomum baillonii'' *'' Cinnamomum balansae'' *'' Cinnamomum bamoense'' *'' Cinnamomum beccarii'' *'' Cinnamomum bejolghota'' *'' Cinnamomum bhamoensis'' *'' Cinnamomum bhaskarii'' *'' Cinnamomum birmanicum'' *'' Cinnamomum bishnupadae'' *'' Cinnamomum blandfordii'' *'' Cinnamomum blumei'' *'' Cinnamomum bokorense'' *'' Cinnamomum bonii'' *'' Cinnamomum brachythyrsum'' *''

Cinnamomum burmanni ''Cinnamomum burmanni'' (or ''Cinnamomum burmannii''), also known as Indonesian cinnamon, Padang cassia, Batavia cassia, or korintje, is one of several plants in the genus ''Cinnamomum'' whose bark is sold as the spice cinnamon. It is an evergre ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Taiwan *'' Cinnamomum keralaense'' *'' Cinnamomum kerangas'' *'' Cinnamomum kerrii'' *'' Cinnamomum kinabaluense'' *'' Cinnamomum kingdon-wardii'' *'' Cinnamomum kotoense'' *'' Cinnamomum kunstleri'' *'' Cinnamomum kwangtungense'' *'' Cinnamomum lanaoeense'' *'' Cinnamomum lanuginosum'' *'' Cinnamomum laubatii'' *'' Cinnamomum lawang'' *'' Cinnamomum ledermannii'' *'' Cinnamomum liangii'' *'' Cinnamomum ligneum'' *'' Cinnamomum lineatum'' *'' Cinnamomum lioui'' *'' Cinnamomum litsaeifolium'' *'' Cinnamomum loheri'' *'' Cinnamomum lohitensis'' *'' Cinnamomum longipedicellatum'' *'' Cinnamomum loureiroi'' – Saigon cinnamon *'' Cinnamomum lucens'' *'' Cinnamomum mabberleyi'' *''

Cinnamomum macrocarpum ''Cinnamomum'' is a genus of evergreen aromatic trees and shrubs belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae. The species of ''Cinnamomum'' have aromatic oils in their Leaf, leaves and bark (botany), bark. The genus contains approximately 234 spec ...

'' *'' Cinnamomum macrophyllum'' *'' Cinnamomum magnificum'' *'' Cinnamomum mairei'' *''

Cinnamomum malabatrum ''Cinnamomum malabatrum'', wild cinnamon, country cinnamon also known as ''malabathrum'', is a tree in the family Lauraceae that is endemic to Western Ghats of India. It can grow up to tall. It has aromatic leaves that are used for culinary an ...

Cinnamomum tamala ''Cinnamomum tamala'', Indian bay leaf'','' also known as tejpat'', ''tejapatta'','' Malabar leaf, Indian bark, Indian cassia, or malabathrum, is a tree in the family Lauraceae that is native to northern India (Assam and the Western Himalayas), ...

'' – ''tejpat'', Indian bay leaf, or malabathrum *'' Cinnamomum tavoyanum'' *'' Cinnamomum tazia'' *'' Cinnamomum tenuifolium'' – Japanese cinnamon *'' Cinnamomum tetragonum'' *'' Cinnamomum travancoricum'' *'' Cinnamomum trichophyllum'' *'' Cinnamomum trinervatum'' *'' Cinnamomum tsangii'' *'' Cinnamomum utile'' *'' Cinnamomum vaccinifolium'' *'' Cinnamomum validinerve'' *''

Cinnamomum verum ''Cinnamomum verum'' ( synonym ''Cinnamomum zeylanicum'', also called true cinnamon tree or Ceylon cinnamon tree) is a small evergreen tree belonging to the family Lauraceae, native to Sri Lanka. The inner bark of the tree is historically regard ...

'' – cinnamon, Ceylon cinnamon, or true cinnamon *''

Cinnamomum villosulum ''Cinnamomum'' is a genus of evergreen aromatic trees and shrubs belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae. The species of ''Cinnamomum'' have aromatic oils in their Leaf, leaves and bark (botany), bark. The genus contains approximately 234 spec ...

'' *'' Cinnamomum vimineum'' *'' Cinnamomum virens'' – red-barked sassafras, eastern Australia *'' Cinnamomum vitiense'' *'' Cinnamomum walaiwarense'' *'' Cinnamomum wightii'' *'' Cinnamomum wilsonii'' *'' Cinnamomum woulfei'' *'' Cinnamomum xanthoneurum'' *'' Cinnamomum yabunikkei'' Species transferred to ''Camphora'': Text was copied from this source, which is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
*'' Camphora bodinieri'' ≡ '' Cinnamomum bodinieri'' *'' Camphora brachythyrsa'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum brachythyrsum'' *'' Camphora chartophylla'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum chartophyllum'' *'' Camphora foveolata'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum foveolatum'' *'' Camphora glandulifera'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum glanduliferum'' *'' Camphora illicioides'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum ilicioides'' *'' Camphora longepaniculata'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum longepaniculatum'' *'' Camphora micrantha'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum micranthum'' *'' Camphora migao'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum migao'' *'' Camphora mollifolia'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum mollifolium'' *''

Camphora officinarum ''Camphora officinarum'' is a species of evergreen tree indigenous to warm temperate to subtropical regions of East Asia, including countries such as China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. It is known by various names, most notably the camph ...

'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum camphora'' *'' Camphora parthenoxylon'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum parthenoxylon'' *'' Camphora philippinensis'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum philippinense'' *'' Camphora platyphylla'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum platyphyllum'' *'' Camphora purpurea'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum purpureum'' *''

Camphora rufotomentosa Camphora may refer to: * Camphora, a synonym for the chemical compound camphor * Camphora, California, an unincorporated community in Monterey County * ''Camphora'' (plant), genus of evergreen trees ** Particularly ''Camphora officinarum ''C ...

'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum rufomentosum'' *'' Camphora septentrionalis'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum septentrionale'' *'' Camphora tenuipilis'' ≡ ''Cinnamomum tenuipile''

References

{{Authority control Lauraceae genera