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Cinnamomum
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Cinnamomum, cinnamon, is a genus of 250 to 300 or more tropical and subtropical evergreen tree and shrub species in the Lauraceae (laurel family) that are often characterized by aromatic oils in the bark and leaves. The genus includes at least five species that are used to produce the spices cinnamon and cassia, as well as essential oils, which are generally obtained from the inner bark:
1) C. verum (formerly C. zeylanicum), “true cinnamon,” or Sri Lanka or Ceylon cinnamon, which originated in Sri Lanka, and is sometimes considered to have the most delicate flavor.
2) C. aromaticum (formerly C. cassia), cassia or Chinese cinnamon, which has a stronger flavor but is less expensive, and is often sold as cinnamon; cassia accounts for most of the spice sold as “cinnamon” in the U.S.
3) C. burmannii, Korintje or Indonesian cinnamon, from Indonesia and Southeast Asia.
4) C. loureirii, Saigon or Vietnamese cinnamon, from Southeast Asia.
5) C. tamala, Indian cassia or cinnamon, from the Himalayas (Bhutan, India, Nepal, and the Yunnan province of China), which is the commonly used in Indian cooking.
The names “cinnamon” and “cassia” cause considerable confusion, as they are often used interchangeably. In the U.S., the spice produced from the dried, ground bark of any of these species is referred to as “cinnamon,” without distinguishing among species. In addition, “cinnamon” may also refer to the spice obtained from the aromatic bark of an unrelated species, Canella winterana (in the Canellaceae).
In addition to the species that are the sources of the spices cinnamon and cassia, the genus also includes C. camphora, camphor or camphor laurel, from which is derived a volatile oil used medicinally as an antiseptic and local anesthetic, as well as in respiratory inhalations.
Cinnamomum species vary in size and form--some grow to heights of 30 m (100 ft) or more, while others are smaller, 9 to 12 m (30 to 40 ft)—but all have leathery leaves with a waxy coating, generally alternate to sub-opposite but in some species opposite. Bark, branches, and leaves all contain aromatic compounds. Flowers are small and tubular, yellow or white, with 6 lobes, either unisexual or bisexual (perfect), and generally occur in axillary panicles (clusters that grow where leave join to branches). The fruit is a small, fleshy berry, partly surrounded by a cup-like perianth (developed from the outer parts of the flower).
Most Cinnamomum species originated in the Old World tropics, in Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Australia, but there are some New World species (formerly classified as the genus Phoebe) native to South and Central America, and southern North America. Several of the commercially used species are now grown in tropical areas worldwide, and have naturalized beyond their native ranges.
(Bailey et al. 1976, FAO 2012, Flora of China 2012, Hedrick 1919, van Wyk 2005.)
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Rights holder/Author | Jacqueline Courteau, Jacqueline Courteau |
Source | No source database. |
Evergreen trees and shrubs. Leaves opposite or alternate, usually strongly 3-veined from the base, sometimes smelling strongly of camphor. Inflorescence of axillary or terminal panicles. Flowers bisexual, sometimes unisexual. Perianth-tube short with 6 equal lobes. Stamens 9 in 3 whorls. Fruit a berry, surrounded by an enlarged cup-like perianth.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings, Flora of Zimbabwe |
Source | http://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/genus.php?genus_id=604 |
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) Stats
Specimen Records:298
Specimens with Sequences:360
Specimens with Barcodes:277
Species:59
Species With Barcodes:58
Public Records:176
Public Species:47
Public BINs:0
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009) |
Cinnamomum is a genus of evergreen aromatic trees and shrubs belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae. The species of Cinnamomum have aromatic oils in their leaves and bark. The genus contains over 300 species, distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of North America, Central America, South America, Asia, Oceania, and Australasia. The genus includes a great number of economically important trees.
§Habitat[edit]
This genus is present in Himalayas and other mountain areas and is present in tropical and subtropical montane rainforest, in the weed-tree forests, in valleys, and mixed forests of coniferous and deciduous broad-leaved trees, from southern China, India, and Southeast Asia. Some species, such as Cinnamomum camphora, tolerate drought.
§Characteristics[edit]
All species tested so far are diploid, with the total number of chromosomes being 24.[1] This Lauraceae genus comprises more than 270 trees and shrubs and most are aromatic. Some trees produce sprouts. The thick, leathery leaves are dark green, lauroid type. Laurophyll or lauroid leaves are characterized by a generous layer of wax, making them glossy in appearance, and narrow, pointed oval in shape with an 'apical mucro', or 'drip tip', which permits the leaves to shed water despite the humidity, allowing respiration from plant.
Mostly, the plants present a distinct odor. Their alternate leaves are ovate-elliptic, with margins entire or occasionally repand, with acute apices and broadly cuneate to subrounded bases. Upper leaf surfaces are shiny green to yellowish-green, while the undersides are opaque and lighter in color. Mature leaves are dark green. Young leaves are reddish brown to yellowish-red. The leaves are glabrous on both surfaces or sparsely puberulent beneath only when young; the leaves are mostly triplinerved or sometimes inconspicuously five-nerved, with conspicuous midrib on both surfaces. The axils of lateral nerves and veins are conspicuously bullate above and dome-shaped. Terminal buds are perulate.
The axillary panicle is 3.5–7 cm long. It is a genus of monoecious species, with hermaphrodite flowers, greenish white, white to yellow are glabrous or downy and pale to yellowish brown. Mostly the flowers are small. The perianth is glabrous or puberulent outside and densely pubescent inside. The purplish-black fruit is an ovate, ellypsoidal or subglobose drupe. The perianth-cup in fruit is cupuliform.
§Selected species[edit]
Cinnamomum parthenoxylon and Cinnamomum camphora are large evergreen trees that can grow to 30 m in height and 3 m in diameter, with broadly ovate crowns. Terminal buds are broadly ovoid or globular, and covered with sericeous scales. Bark is yellowish-brown with irregular vertical splits. Branches are light brown, cylindrical, and glabrous.
The inner bark of several species is used to make the spice cinnamon. Other notable species are C. tamala, used as the herb malabathrum (also called tejpat and Indian bay leaf), and C. camphora, from which camphor is produced.
- Cinnamomum acuminatifolium
- Cinnamomum acuminatissimum
- Cinnamomum acutatum
- Cinnamomum africanum
- Cinnamomum aggregatum
- Cinnamomum alainii
- Cinnamomum alatum
- Cinnamomum albiflorum
- Cinnamomum alcinii
- Cinnamomum alexei
- Cinnamomum alibertii
- Cinnamomum alternifolium
- Cinnamomum altissimum
- Cinnamomum ammannii
- Cinnamomum amoenum
- Cinnamomum amplexicaule
- Cinnamomum amplifolium
- Cinnamomum anacardium
- Cinnamomum andersonii
- Cinnamomum angustifolium
- Cinnamomum angustitepalum
- Cinnamomum antillarum
- Cinnamomum appelianum
- Cinnamomum arbusculum
- Cinnamomum archboldianum
- Cinnamomum areolatocostae
- Cinnamomum areolatum
- Cinnamomum arfakense
- Cinnamomum argenteum
- Cinnamomum aromaticum - cassia
- Cinnamomum arsenei
- Cinnamomum asa-grayi
- Cinnamomum assamicum
- Cinnamomum aubletii
- Cinnamomum aureo-fulvum
- Cinnamomum australe
- Cinnamomum austro-sinense
- Cinnamomum austro-yunnanense
- Cinnamomum bahianum
- Cinnamomum bahiense
- Cinnamomum baileyanum
- Cinnamomum baillonii
- Cinnamomum balansae
- Cinnamomum bamoense
- Cinnamomum barbato-axillatum
- Cinnamomum barbeyanum
- Cinnamomum barlowii
- Cinnamomum bartheifolium
- Cinnamomum barthii
- Cinnamomum bazania
- Cinnamomum beccarii
- Cinnamomum bejolghota
- Cinnamomum bengalense
- Cinnamomum biafranum
- Cinnamomum bintulense
- Cinnamomum birmanicum
- Cinnamomum blumei
- Cinnamomum bodinieri
- Cinnamomum bonii
- Cinnamomum bonplandii
- Cinnamomum borneense
- Cinnamomum bourgeauvianum
- Cinnamomum boutonii
- Cinnamomum brachythyrsum
- Cinnamomum bractefoliaceum
- Cinnamomum burmannii - Indonesian cinnamon
- Cinnamomum camphora - camphor laurel
- Cinnamomum cassia - (C. aromaticum)
- Cinnamomum caudiferum
- Cinnamomum chartophyllum
- Cinnamomum citriodorum - Malabar cinnamon
- Cinnamomum contractum
- Cinnamomum dubium - Wild cinnamon
- Cinnamomum filipes
- Cinnamomum glanduliferum
- Cinnamomum glaucescens
- Cinnamomum ilicioides
- Cinnamomum impressinervium
- Cinnamomum iners
- Cinnamomum japonicum - (C. pedunculatum Japanese cinnamon)
- Cinnamomum javanicum
- Cinnamomum jensenianum
- Cinnamomum kanehirae - (stout camphor tree niu zhang (Chinese: 牛樟); endemic to Taiwan)
- Cinnamomum kotoense
- Cinnamomum kwangtungense
- Cinnamomum liangii
- Cinnamomum longepaniculatum
- Cinnamomum longipetiolatum
- Cinnamomum loureiroi - (Saigon cinnamon)
- Cinnamomum mairei
- Cinnamomum micranthum
- Cinnamomum migao
- Cinnamomum mercadoi Vidal - (kalingag tree)
- Cinnamomum mollifolium
- Cinnamomum oliveri
- Cinnamomum osmophloeum - (pseudocinnamomum)
- Cinnamomum ovalifolium
- Cinnamomum parthenoxylon - (Selasian wood, Martaban camphor wood, saffrol laurel, alcanforero amarillo, mreah prew phnom, kayu gadis, telasihan, huang zhang (Chinese: 黃樟))
- Cinnamomum pauciflorum
- Cinnamomum philippinense
- Cinnamomum pingbienense
- Cinnamomum pittosporoides
- Cinnamomum platyphyllum
- Cinnamomum porphyrium
- Cinnamomum porrectum
- Cinnamomum reticulatum
- Cinnamomum rigidissimum
- Cinnamomum saxatile
- Cinnamomum septentrionale
- Cinnamomum sinharajaense
- Cinnamomum sintoc Blume
- Cinnamomum subavenium
- Cinnamomum tamala - (tejpat, Indian bay leaf, or malabathrum)
- Cinnamomum tenuipilum
- Cinnamomum tonkinense
- Cinnamomum triplinerve
- Cinnamomum tsangii
- Cinnamomum tsoi
- Cinnamomum validinerve
- Cinnamomum verum - (cinnamon, Ceylon cinnamon, or true cinnamon)
- Cinnamomum virens - (red-barked sassafras, eastern Australia)
- Cinnamomum wilsonii
§References[edit]
- ^ Ravindran, P. N.; K. Nirmal Babu; M. Shylaja (2003). Cinnamon and Cassia: The genus Cinnamomum. CRC Press. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-415-31755-9.
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§External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cinnamomum. |
Wikispecies has information related to: Cinnamomum |
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