Vietnamese Cinnamon; Vietnamese Cassia
Cinnamomum loureiroi · Lauraceae · 육계나무
How to spot it
Characterized by the cinnamon smell when a leaf is cut and distinct three-veined leaves; the similar camphor tree has alternate leaves and reddish new leaves.
Look
- Leaves
- Leathery egg-oblong leaves (about 12 cm long) with a long pointed tip and three distinct veins from the base; a cut leaf smells of cinnamon.
- Flowers
- In May to June, pale yellowish-green flowers open in umbels from leaf axils of new twigs.
- Fruit
- Elliptic berries (1.5 cm long, 8 mm across) ripen black in December and hold one seed.
- Bark
- Grayish-black bark that peels irregularly. One-year-old twigs are green, without hairs or lenticels.