extremely gigantic and spreading Camphor Tree

[Eric in Orlando]

This has to be the largest, widest spreading Camphor Tree, Cinnamomum camphora I have ever seen. It is growing in Winter Park and the property used to be a large estate with the house being built in 1910. This camphor tree has very low spreading branches that reach the ground. The growth habit is similat to an old Southern Live Oak, Quercus virginiana.

The tree was way too big to fit in one photo so I took photos from 3 angles. It is covered in resurrection fern and various Tillandsias.

[Eric in Orlando]

[Walt]

It sure is a pretty and awesome tree. I'm just surprised it survivied all the hurricanes and wind damaging tropical storms over the years. But the proof is in the pudding, as they say.

[Kim]

A tree like that imparts a lot of grandeur to the house and garden, a signature of time. No amount of money can buy a tree like that. Beautiful.

[Stevetoad]

WOW! thats tree is a forest all by itself...

[DoomsDave]

Whoa!

That is enormous.

I've never seen one that big out here, no where even a little close.

[DoomsDave]

Hmm.

Are you 100% sure it's a camphor?

How about a close up of the leaves?

The trees I know as camphor have a pinkish tint on the new leaves.

That said, I know that some plants look different in Florida than here.

What ever it is, it's glorious.

[Eric in Orlando]

  On 9/7/2011 at 3:49 PM, Walt said:

It sure is a pretty and awesome tree. I'm just surprised it survivied all the hurricanes and wind damaging tropical storms over the years. But the proof is in the pudding, as they say.

Camphors are extremely wind resistant. We have several giant, 100 year+ old specimens and none suffered damage in the 3 hurricanes of 2004. They lost leaves and just small green twigs/branches. Just made a mess but no large limbs or canopy damage

[Eric in Orlando]

  On 9/7/2011 at 5:45 PM, Dave from So-Cal said:

Hmm.

Are you 100% sure it's a camphor?

How about a close up of the leaves?

The trees I know as camphor have a pinkish tint on the new leaves.

That said, I know that some plants look different in Florida than here.

What ever it is, it's glorious.

Definitely a camphor. Almost every pre-1900 house I see around here has an old camphor in the yard.

[epiphyte]

Super specimen! Camphor trees are pretty common here in Southern California. Their bark has some really great texture and I've often wondered if they would be suitable hosts for epiphytes. This is the first evidence I've run across of epiphytes growing on a Camphor tree.

It's fun to try and guess how many square feet of surface area that tree has...500 sq ft...1000 sq ft...more? So...much...epiphyte potential.

[Eric in Orlando]

You don't see many epiphytes on camphor trees around here. Camphor trees are allelopathic and its hard to grow many plants underneath them so it might restrict or retard epiphyte growth too.. Resurrection fern usually grows on them and some tillandsias. But you hardy ever see any spanish moss on them. I have seen some with bromeliads growing on them. We have bromeliads growing in the crotches of some of the old specimens here but they are much less vigorous than if they were growing in the ground or other trees. Not sure about orchids but we have never found any native green butterfly orchid growing on a camphor here.

[Tomw]

That thing needs some orchids and bromeliads growing on it!

[Mandrew968]

AMAZING!! Thank you for the photos.

[fastfeat]

Great-looking tree. Where in WP?

[Eric in Orlando]

On Greentree St., off of Palmer and on the north side of Lake Osceola. 2-3 houses down from this house is where the big Jubaea/ hybrid is growing.

[Takil-Explorer]

Well in Souther Japan you get taifoons wich are similair to hurricanes. So they are naturally adapted to strong winds.

Alexander