阴香 yin xiang

Laurus burmanni Nees & T. Nees, Cinnam. Disp. [Amoen. Bot. Bonn. Fasc. 1:] 57. 1823; Cinnamomum chinense Blume; C. dulce (Roxburgh) Sweet; C. hainanense Nakai; C. kiamis Nees; C. miaoshanense S. K. Lee & F. N. Wei; L. dulcis Roxburgh.

Trees, up to 14 m tall, to 30 cm d.b.h. Bark smooth, gray-brown to dark brown outside, red inside, cassia-scented. Branchlets green or brown-green, slender, striate, glabrous. Leaves alternate or subopposite, rarely opposite; petiole 0.5-1.2 cm, plano-convex, subglabrous; leaf blade glaucous green and opaque abaxially, green and shiny adaxially, ovate or oblong to lanceolate, 5.5-10.5 × 2-5 cm, leathery, glabrous on both surfaces, triplinerved, midrib and basal lateral veins very elevated abaxially, conspicuous adaxially, basal lateral veins arising 3-8 mm above leaf base, evanescent toward leaf apex, transverse veins and veinlets somewhat elevated on both surfaces, ± reticulate, base broadly cuneate, apex shortly acuminate. Panicle axillary or subterminal, shorter than leaf, (2-)3-6 cm, few flowered, lax, densely gray puberulent, branched, apex of branch bearing a 3-flowered cyme. Pedicels slender, 4-6 mm, gray puberulent. Flowers green-white, ca. 5 mm. Perianth densely gray puberulent outside and inside; perianth tube short, obconical, ca. 2 mm; perianth lobes oblong-ovate, acute. Fertile stamens 9, ca. 2.5 mm (of 1st and 2nd whorls) or ca. 2.7 mm (of 3rd whorl); filaments puberulent, those of 3rd whorl each with 2 subsessile globose glands, others glandless; anthers oblong, 4-celled; cells introrse (of 1st and 2nd whorls) or extrorse (of 3rd whorl). Staminodes 3, narrowly triangular, ca. 1 mm, stalked; stalk ca. 0.7 mm, puberulent. Ovary subglobose, ca. 1.5 mm, somewhat puberulent; style ca. 2 mm, angled, somewhat puberulent; stigma discoid. Fruit ovoid, ca. 8 × 5 mm; perianth cup in fruit ca. 4 mm, apex ca. 3 mm wide, dentate, teeth truncate. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Oct-Nov.

Sparse or dense forests and thickets, roadsides along streams; 100-1400 m (to 2100 m in Yunnan). Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan [India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Vietnam].

The dried bark is a source of an important spice, which is used as a substitute for cassia bark. The wood is heavy, soft, finely grained, and used for house construction. The leafy branchlets contain volatile oil. Three types of the oil are found in Yunnan: linalol type (linalol ca. 57%), citral type (citral ca. 77%), and cineole type (cineole ca. 47%).