Trees large; branchlets slender, glabrous; terminal buds large, perulate, the outer bud scales glabrous, the inner sericeous. Leaves spirally arranged, glabrous, chartaceous to sub-coriaceous, ovate-elliptic to elliptic to subovate-elliptic, 1-5 x 3-10 cm, base acute or tapered-cuneate, both surfaces minutely reticulate or above smooth; main nerves slender; the sub-basal lateral nerves ascendent to 1/2- 2/3 the lamina length, additional nerves erect-patent, often the axils bullate above and excavate pilose underneath, secondary nerves faint. Petiole slender, 2-4 cm long. Panicles axillary, slender, glabrous, many-flowered, up to 10 cm long with few short branches. Pedicels 1-2 mm, obconical. Tepals ovate, acutish, fleshy, c. 2 mm. Stamens 1.5 mm long; anthers broad, filaments as long, pilose; inner anthers truncate, upper cells smaller, latrorse; gland large, attached to the basal part of the filament. Staminodes mm, stipitate. Style as long as the ovary with peltate triquetrous stigma. Fruit globose, slightly fleshy, 5-10 mm in diameter, seated on a shallow, thin cup, 3-5 mm in diameter at the apex, 1-2 mm deep, the basal part fleshy, obconical, usually not differentiated from the obconical pedicel, together 5-7 mm long.

Fl. Per.: March-April.

Type: Japan, Linnaeus (LINN).

Distribution: Cultivated all over the world.

Camphor tree is cultivated as an ornamental tree and for commercial purposes to extract laurel camphor from leaves and wood. The camphor yield is very variable, depending on strains and localities. Camphor oil from the leaves often contains saffrol.