Laurelia sempervirens, called from mapuche

Mapuche

The Mapuche are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina. They constitute a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who shared a common social, religious and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage. Their influence extended...

: Tihue, Trihue, also called Chilean Laurel or Chilean Sassafras. It is a species of Evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...

 tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 in the family Atherospermataceae

Atherospermataceae

The Atherospermataceae, commonly known as the southern sassafrases, are a family of broadleaf evergreen trees and shrubs. The family includes 14 species in seven genera. The atherosperms are native to the southern hemisphere, with two species native to southern Chile and 12 species native to...

, formerly Monimiaceae

Monimiaceae

Monimiaceae is a family of flowering plants, which includes 150-220 species of shrubs and small trees in 18-25 genera. They are native to the southern hemisphere tropics and subtropics. The largest genus is Tambourissa, with 50 species in Madagascar, the Mascarene Islands, and the Comoros...

 family, in the southern hemisphere genus of plant

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

 Laurelia

Laurelia

Laurelia is a genus of flowering plants included in the order Laurales, in the family Atherospermataceae. They are Evergreen fragrant laurifolia trees formerly in the Monimiaceae family....

, not closely related to Lauraceae

Lauraceae

The Lauraceae or Laurel family comprises a group of flowering plants included in the order Laurales. The family contains about 55 genera and over 3500, perhaps as many as 4000, species world-wide, mostly from warm or tropical regions, especially Southeast Asia and South America...

 despite the similarity. It is endemic to Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

. It occurs 34-41º South Latitude. They require a warm subtropical to tropical climate that is cool but also frost-free or with only very slight winter frosts not below -4°C, and with high summer heat, rainfall, and humidity. This is, the laurel forest

Laurel forest

Laurel forest is a subtropical or mild temperate forest, found in areas with high humidity and relatively stable and mild temperatures. They are characterized by tree species with evergreen, glossy, enlongated leaves, known as laurophyll or lauroide...

 habitat. The Tihue Growth best on well-drained, slightly acidic soil

Soil

Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...

s rich in organic matter.

Description

The Tihue is a large, ( up 30 m. tall to 2 m. diameter) evergreen laurifolia tree with smooth, yellow pale bark. The bark cracks when aging coming off in roughly circular plates. The wood and the leaves are strongly aromatic. The bright green leaves of the Chilean laurel are arranged in opposite pairs, and are oblong in shape, narrowed at the base. The leaves are leathery, shiny, and around 5 to 10 centimetres long and 2.5 to 5 centimetres wide. The serrated edges of the leaves help to distinguish this tree from the closely related Laureliopsis philippiana

Laureliopsis philippiana

Laureliopsis philippiana , known as Tepa is a species of plant endemic to Chile and Argentina . In Chile it is found from Maule to Aysen. It grows on humid and deep soils.-Description:...

, which has more deeply toothed leaf margins. The Tihue bears bundels of small yellow flowers this flowers are unisexuals or hermaphrodites. The fruit is a greenish achene with seeds bearing feathery anemophilous filaments. The seed is dispersed by the wind (anemochory).

Cultivation and uses

Its wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

 is pale-yellowish, with growth rings little notorious and homogeneous and fine texture. It is threatened by habitat loss.
It has been introduced into Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and into Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 and planted in Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

in the UK.