Miller, James H.; Manning, Steven T.; Enloe, Stephen F. 2010. A management guide for invasive plants in southern forests. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS–131. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 120 p.
Camphortree [Cinnamomum camphora (L.) J. Presl] is an evergreen tree 60 to 100 feet (18 to 30 m) in height, with boles up to 2 feet (0.6 m) in diameter and a round spreading crown formed by large branches radiating from midtree. Leaves are glossy, lanceolate, alternate at twig tips, and have a camphor odor when crushed, cut, or bruised. Twigs are slender, green-to-reddish brown. Abundant clusters of spherical, black drupes are present in fall to winter, and are spread by animals, water, and gravity. Colonizes by root sprouts and is found in dense thickets.
Management strategies
- Do not plant. Remove prior plantings. Bag and dispose of fruit in a dumpster or burn.
- Treat when new plants are young to prevent seed formation.
- Cut and bulldoze when fruit are not present.
- Manually pull new seedlings and tree wrench saplings when soil is moist, ensuring removal of all roots.
- Burning treatments are useful for seedling and sapling topkill when leaflitter is present, and fires can be hot.
Recommended control procedures
Large trees. Make stem injections using undiluted Garlon 3A (June through September) or Vanquish* as a 75-percent solution (9 quarts per 3-gallon mix) with water (June through November) in cut-spacings specified on the herbicide label. For stems too tall for foliar sprays, cut large stems and immediately treat the stump tops with Garlon 3A as a 30-percent solution (7 pints per 3-gallon mix) or Garlon 4 as a 25-percent solution (3 quarts per 3-gallon mix), and add a penetrant for more effective control. ORTHO Brush-B-Gon, Enforcer Brush Killer, and Vine-X are effective undiluted for treating cut-stumps and available in retail garden stores (safe to surrounding plants).
Saplings. Apply a basal spray for trees up to 4 inches in diameter using Garlon 4 as a 30-percent solution (7 pints per 3-gallon mix) in a labeled basal oil product, vegetable oil or mineral oil with a penetrant, or fuel oil or diesel fuel (where permitted).
Seedlings and saplings. Thoroughly wet all leaves with one of the following herbicides in water with a surfactant: a glyphosate herbicide, Garlon 3A, Garlon 4, or Clearcast* for wetlands and aquatic sites, as 2-percent solutions (8 ounces per 3-gallon mix).
* Nontarget plants may be killed or injured by root uptake.
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