Bookmatched set of camphor boards.
Camphor, medium-sized to large introduced ornamental evergreen tree with dense rounded crown of three-veined shiny dark green leaves and distinctive odor of camphor in crushed foliage. To 80 ft (24 m) high and 3 ft (0.9 m) in trunk diameter. Bark gray, smoothish, becoming thick, rough, and furrowed. Inner bark pinkish, spicy bitter. The wood is yellowish brown with darker streaks, lightweight (sp. gr. 0.45), soft, fine-textured, strongly scented, and takes a good polish. Elsewhere, it has served in cabinetwork, especially chests, because the odor is an insect repellent. A few trees have been cut in Hawaii and worked into chests and closet lining. Camphor gum and oil, used in medicine and industry, are prepared by steam distillation of leaf clippings and wood from plantations. Planted as an ornamental and shade tree in Hawaii; elsewhere as windbreaks and hedges. On Oahu, Kauai, Lanai, and Maui, a total of 3600 trees are recorded as having been planted in the Forest Reserves. In several wet forest areas, notably in Nuuanu Valley, dense thickets of this tree form an understory beneath Eucalyptus stands. It attains large size when grown as a plantation tree in the forest. There is a stand at about 1100 ft (335 m) elevation along Tantalus Drive, Oahu, that attests to this.
