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Florida Gardening

Tree ID

14 years ago

Can someone explain how to tell the difference between a camphor tree and a Gumbo Limbo tree? We live on a wooded five acre lot, there are a few of these trees with dark green leaves, pointed, and when they are crushed they do smell like camphor, yet when I read about the Gumbo Limbo it appears they might do the same thing. I've been told the camphor is invasive so not sure whether to keep them or not. Are they native? They aren't bad looking trees, though, all very healthy and lush. The area here is clay soil, stays moist, and we have a mixture of pines, oaks, (mostly water oaks), a few wild cherries, persimmons, hickories, cedars, sweet gums. We also have Chinese tallow trees which I understand are also invasive and aren't native.

Rita

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Comments (5)

fawnridge (Ricky)
14 years ago
The easiest way is by the bark. The Camphor Tree has a rough, fissured bark whereas the Gumbo Limbo has a very smooth, flaky bark.
gatormomx2
14 years ago
Eliminate the Chinese Tallow asap . Very bad invasive trees . The Camphors rate lower on the invasive scale . They do have thousands of seeds and every single one will sprout . The small limbs of Camphor trees are just like glass - very brittle and break easily in storms .
On the other hand - they are pretty trees and provide nice shade . Birds love the seeds and the wood and leaves smell so good . The small limbs burn nicely in a fire .
Check solutionsforyourlife.com - the University of Florida website for lots of info on these trees . Here is a link to an example of putting Chinese Tallow into the search box .

Here is a link that might be useful: 27 results for chinese tallow
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fighting8r
14 years ago
Gumbo limbo is easy to tell by the reddish, peeling-looking bark. It's why it's sometimes called the "tourist tree" because of the "sunburn."
Camphor is also a host to the spicebush swallowtail, so IMO worth having around for that.
User
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks to all for the info. It looks like the main large trunk is rough and grooved, although the newer limbs are smooth, green with a reddish color in places. But there is no peeling of the bark anywhere. So I am going to assume that it is camphor. Since we will be keeping the brush and new saplings mowed down with the brush cutter regularly, I'm going to leave them alone. As for the Chinese tallow, I'll alert my husband that they are bad invasives and to think about removing them when he gets a chance. He's still in the process of clearing, probably will be another 5 years before he gets it the way he wants. We will be leaving some of it for the wildlife, just don't want all the thick woodland brush up close to the house in case of fire.

Rita
johnjsr
14 years ago
When you cut down these Tallow trees down be carefull. The sap is said to be poisonous and will irritate the skin and eyes. Don't burn the wood in your fireplace. Don't allow livestock to eat the leaves. If you don't poison the stump you will have many, many more coming up from the roots. Horrible tree.
john

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