Lauraceae in the context of Laurel forest

The avocado, alligator pear or avocado pear (Persea americana) is an evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to the Americas, with archaeological evidence of early human avocado use dating back thousands of years across various regions of Central and South America. It was prized for its large and unusually oily fruit. The native range of avocado (Persea americana) extends from Mexico to Peru, encompassing much of Central America and parts of northern and western South America.

Its fruit, sometimes also referred to as an alligator pear or avocado pear, is botanically a large berry containing a single large seed. Sequencing of its genome showed that the evolution of avocados was shaped by polyploidy events and that commercial varieties have a hybrid origin. Avocado trees are partly self-pollinating, and are often propagated through grafting to maintain consistent fruit output. Avocados are presently cultivated in the tropical and Mediterranean climates of many countries. As of 2023, Mexico is the world's leading producer of avocados, supplying 29% of the global harvest of 10.5 million tonnes.

Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus Cinnamomum. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, in particular sweet and savoury dishes such as biscuits, breakfast cereals, snack foods, bagels, teas, hot chocolate, and traditional foods. The aroma and flavour of cinnamon derive from its essential oil and principal component, cinnamaldehyde, as well as numerous other constituents, including eugenol.

Cinnamon is the name for several species of trees and the commercial spice products that some of them produce. All are members of the genus Cinnamomum in the family Lauraceae. Only a few Cinnamomum species are grown commercially for spice. Cinnamomum verum (alternatively C. zeylanicum), known as "Ceylon cinnamon" after its origins in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), is considered to be "true cinnamon", but most cinnamon in international commerce is derived from four other species, usually and more correctly referred to as "cassia": C. burmanni (Indonesian cinnamon or Padang cassia), C. cassia (Chinese cinnamon or Chinese cassia), C. loureiroi (Saigon cinnamon or Vietnamese cassia), and the less common C. citriodorum (Malabar cinnamon).

Cryptocarya williwilliana, commonly known as small-leaved laurel, is a species of flowering plant in the laurel family and is endemic to near Kempsey in northern New South Wales. It is a tree or shrub with egg-shaped or lance-shaped leaves, the flowers creamy-green and perfumed, and the fruit a spherical to elliptic, black drupe.

The resplendent quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno) is a small bird found in Central America and southern Mexico that lives in tropical forests, particularly montane cloud forests. They are part of the family Trogonidae and have two recognized subspecies, P. m. mocinno and P. m. costaricensis. Like other quetzals, the resplendent is mostly omnivorous; its diet mainly consists of fruits of plants in the laurel family, Lauraceae, but it occasionally also preys on insects, lizards, frogs and snails.

The species is well known for its colorful and complex plumage that differs substantially between sexes. Males have iridescent green plumes, a red lower breast and belly, black innerwings and a white undertail, whilst females are duller and have a shorter tail. Grey lower breasts, bellies, and bills, along with bronze-green heads are characteristic of females. These birds hollow holes in decaying trees or use ones already made by woodpeckers as a nest site. They are known to take turns while incubating, males throughout the day and females at night. The female usually lays one to three eggs, which hatch in 17 to 19 days. The quetzal is an altitudinal migrant, migrating from the slopes to the canopy of the forest. This occurs during the breeding season, which varies depending on the location, but usually commences in March and extends as far as August.

Laurus (/ˈlɔːrəs/) is a genus of evergreen trees or shrubs belonging to the laurel family. The genus contains three or more species, including the bay laurel or sweet bay, L. nobilis, widely cultivated as an ornamental plant and a culinary herb.

Laurus nobilis /ˈlɔːrəs ˈnɒbɪlɪs/ is an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub with green, glabrous (smooth) leaves. It is in the flowering plant family Lauraceae. According to Muer, Jahn, & Sauerbier, the stem can be 1 metre in diameter and the tree can be as high as 20 metres. It is native to the Mediterranean region and is used as bay leaf for seasoning in cooking. Its common names include bay tree (esp. United Kingdom), bay laurel, sweet bay, true laurel, Grecian laurel, or simply laurel. Laurus nobilis figures prominently in classical Greco-Roman culture.

Worldwide, many other kinds of plants in diverse families are also called "bay" or "laurel", generally due to similarity of foliage or aroma to Laurus nobilis.

Prunus laurocerasus, also known as cherry laurel, common laurel and sometimes English laurel in North America, is an evergreen species of cherry (Prunus), native to regions bordering the Black Sea in southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe, from Albania and Bulgaria east through Turkey to the Caucasus Mountains and northern Iran.

The common names of P. laurocerasus refer to the similarity of foliage and appearance to bay laurel (Laurus nobilis, the true laurel, in the family Lauraceae), and like the bay laurel, Prunus laurocerasus was used for making laurel wreaths, but the two plants are not closely related. It is not to be confused with its American relative Prunus caroliniana, which is also called cherry laurel.

Camphor (/ˈkæmfər/) is a waxy, colorless solid with a strong aroma. It is classified as a terpenoid and a cyclic ketone. It is found in the wood of the camphor laurel (Cinnamomum camphora), a large evergreen tree found in East Asia; and in the kapur tree (Dryobalanops sp.), a tall timber tree from South East Asia. It also occurs in some other related trees in the laurel family, notably Ocotea usambarensis. Rosemary leaves (Rosmarinus officinalis) contain 0.05 to 0.5% camphor, while camphorweed (Heterotheca) contains some 5%. A major source of camphor in Asia is camphor basil (the parent of African blue basil). Camphor can also be synthetically produced from oil of turpentine.

The compound is chiral, existing in two possible enantiomers as shown in the structural diagrams. The structure on the left is the naturally occurring (+)-camphor ((1R,4R)-bornan-2-one), while its mirror image shown on the right is the (−)-camphor ((1S,4S)-bornan-2-one). Camphor has few uses but is of historic significance as a compound that is readily purified from natural sources.

Laurel forest, also called laurisilva or laurissilva, is a type of subtropical forest found in areas with high humidity and relatively stable, mild temperatures. The forest is characterized by broadleaf tree species with evergreen, glossy and elongated leaves, known as "laurophyll" or "lauroid". Plants from the laurel family (Lauraceae) may or may not be present, depending on the location.

Cinnamomum verum (synonym Cinnamomum zeylanicum), also called true cinnamon or Ceylon cinnamon is a small evergreen tree belonging to the family Lauraceae, native to Sri Lanka. The inner bark of the tree is historically regarded as the spice cinnamon, though this term was later generalized to include C. cassia as well.

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 and are best known as the source of the spice cinnamon. The genus contains about 227 species, distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania/Australasia. The genus includes a great number of economically important trees used to produce the spice cinnamon. The oldest fossils are known from the Cretaceous,but the group reached a peak of diversity during the Eocene.

Cinnamomum citriodorum is a species of flowering plant in the family Lauraceae. It is commonly known as Malabar cinnamon. It is an evergreen tree which grows up to 10 metres tall. The species is endemic to central and southwestern Sri Lanka.

It grows in lowland rain forests from 300 to 700 metres elevation. It is a rare tree, known from only five wild populations. It is threatened by habitat loss from conversion of its native forests to agriculture and plantations.

Phyllocladus hypophyllus is a species of conifer in the family Podocarpaceae. It a tree native to Borneo (Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia), Sulawesi and the Maluku Islands (Indonesia), the Philippines, and New Guinea (Indonesia and Papua New Guinea).

Phyllocladus hypophyllus grows in tropical evergreen hill, montane, and subalpine rainforests from (310) 600 to 3,400 (4,000) meters elevation. At lower elevations it grows as a large canopy tree, in mixed broadleaf-conifer forests with species of Podocarpaceae, Fagaceae, and Lauraceae, and in kerangas forests on white sandstone-derived and nutrient-poor sand with other conifers including Agathis. In upper montane cloud forest or 'mossy' forest it grows up to 20 meters high, forming part of the low canopy with other conifers (Dacrydium sp., Dacrycarpus sp., and Podocarpus sp.) and broadleaf trees, which are covered with epiphytes including ferns and mosses. In New Guinea it often grows in montane forests dominated by the broadleaf tree Nothofagus grandis with P. hypophyllus and other podocarps mixed in. In high-elevation subalpine forests it grows in shrubby or dwarfed form, often at the edges of boggy grasslands, especially in New Guinea, and on rocky ridges. It grows on diverse substrates, including granite, sandstone, peaty soils, ultramafic soils derived from serpentinite and similar rocks, volcanic deposits, and eroded limestone.