Stinkwood
Ocotea foetens
Family · Lauraceae · Irritating
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The largest tree of the laurisilva, reaching forty metres and living for centuries, with an unpleasant smell in cut wood that gave it its scientific name. Old trunks go hollow and become trail landmarks.
Oak woods · Streams and ditches · Uplands
Also known asCanary stinkwood, til
How to tell it
A huge tree with a straight trunk and smooth greyish bark that fissures with age. Large, leathery, glossy leaves with clearly visible domatia in the vein axils beneath. The fruit is characteristic: a fleshy acorn seated in a thick cup, like an oak acorn but on a laurel relative. Range: Madeira and the Canaries.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
The timber was much used in joinery and building in Madeira, despite the smell. The fruits are not eaten. There are til trees centuries old on Madeiran trails and they are the oldest trees on the islands.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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