黄樟 huang zhang

Laurus parthenoxylon Jack, Malayan Misc. 1: 28. 1820; Camphora parthenoxylon (Jack) Nees; C. porrecta (Roxburgh) Voigt; Cinnamomum barbatoaxillatum N. Chao; C. porrectum (Roxburgh) Kostermans; C. purpureum H. G. Ye & F. G. Wang; L. porrecta Roxburgh; Parthenoxylon porrectum (Roxburgh) Blume; Phoebe latifolia Champion ex Bentham; Sassafras parthenoxylon (Jack) Nees.

Evergreen trees; trunk straight, 10-20 m tall, up to 40 cm d.b.h. Bark dark green-brown, gray-yellow on upper part, longitudinally deeply fissured, peeling off in lamellae, 3-5 mm thick, reddish inside, camphor-scented. Branchlets green-brown, robust, terete; young branchlets gray-green, angled, glabrous. Buds ovoid; bud scales suborbicular, sericeous. Leaves alternate; petiole 1.5-3 cm, concave-convex, glabrous; leaf blade greenish or glaucous green abaxially, dark green and shiny adaxially, usually elliptic-ovate or narrowly elliptic-ovate, 6-12 × 3-6 cm, those on fertile branchlets smaller, leathery, glabrous on both surfaces, pinninerved, lateral veins 4 or 5 pairs, lateral veins and midrib conspicuous on both surfaces, axils of lateral veins inconspicuously dome-shaped abaxially and inconspicuously bullate adaxially, transverse veins and veinlets reticulate, base cuneate or broadly cuneate, margin entire, apex usually acute or shortly acuminate. Panicle axillary on upper part of branchlet or subterminal, 4.5-8 cm; peduncle 3-5.5 cm, peduncle and rachis glabrous. Pedicels slender, up to 4 mm, glabrous. Flowers green-yellow, small, ca. 3 mm. Perianth glabrous outside, pubescent inside; perianth tube obconical, ca. 1 mm; perianth lobes narrowly elliptic, ca. 2 × 1.2 mm, punctate, obtuse. Fertile stamens 9, ca. 1.5 mm (of 1st and 2nd whorls) or ca. 1.7 mm (of 3rd whorl); filaments pubescent, those of 3rd whorl each with 2 shortly stalked subcordate glands, others glandless; anthers ovate or oblong, ca. 0.7 mm, all 4-celled. Staminodes 3, triangular-cordate, including stalk less than 1 mm; stalk pubescent. Ovary ovoid, ca. 1 mm, glabrous; style curved, ca. 1 mm; stigma discoid, inconspicuously 3-lobed. Fruit black, globose, 6-8 mm in diam.; perianth cup in fruit red, narrowly obconical, ca. 1 cm or less, longitudinally striate, base ca. 1 mm wide. Fl. Mar-May, fr. Apr-Oct.

Evergreen broad-leaved forests, thickets; below 1500 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan [Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam].

The roots, bark, wood, and leafy branchlets contain volatile oil and camphor. The fruit kernel contains oil and fat (up to 60%), which are used in soap manufacture. The wood is finely grained and used for furniture and cabinets. The leaves are used as feed for the silkworm native to Hainan.