Types of Cinnamon Tree – Ceylon or Camphor

Choose Ceylon cinnamon or a camphor tree first. One is a spice tree. The other is a large shade tree. Read the Latin before you buy.

Choose Ceylon cinnamon or a camphor tree first

The first choice is whether you want spice. Ceylon cinnamon is true cinnamon. Older tags may say Cinnamomum zeylanicum. The inner bark dries into thin, layered quills that grind easily. Most grocery cinnamon in the United States is cassia, a thicker, harder bark from plants this catalog does not hold. A camphor tree is the landscape evergreen with camphor-scented leaves and a wide canopy. Birds eat the fruit and drop seed far from the tree. Read the Latin on the tag before you buy. [1]

Browse by kind

Match the use, then pick that kind. A camphor tree will not give you kitchen quills, and Ceylon cinnamon will not stay a seventy-foot shade tree in a pot. If the tag only says cinnamon tree, ask whether it is Cinnamomum verum. Shop names mix true cinnamon, cinnamon tree, and camphor laurel. A crushed camphor leaf smells of mothballs and medicine, not baking spice. In parts of Florida, camphor tree is not recommended for new planting because seedlings spread. Read the Latin, then buy that kind. Care for the tree you already have on How to Grow Cinnamon Tree.

Ceylon cinnamon

Ceylon cinnamon is the tree grown for thin inner-bark quills. Tags may say true cinnamon or cinnamon tree. Buy this group when you want spice, not a giant shade canopy. It is Cinnamomum verum, native to Sri Lanka, not a camphor tree. [2]

Camphor tree

camphor tree is the large evergreen grown for shade. Crushed leaves smell of camphor, not kitchen cinnamon. Birds spread the fruit, and in much of the South it seeds into woods and roadsides. Buy it for shade, not for baking. It is Cinnamomum camphora, not Ceylon cinnamon. [3] [4]

If you want spice, buy Ceylon cinnamon — a camphor tree is the landscape kind.