''Ocotea foetens'', commonly called til or stinkwood is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of tree in the family Lauraceae. It is

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

and grows up to 40 m tall. It is a common constituent of the laurisilva

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

s of

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

and the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

. Leaf fossils of this species are known from the Mio-Pleistocene of Madeira Island.

Description

''Ocotea foetens'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Macaronesia. Like the other species of the genus '' Ocotea'', it is rich in essential oils, which give an unpleasant odor to the wood when freshly cut (hence the name '' foetens'',

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for ''smelly, stinky, disgusting, unpleasant''). It is rarely used as an ornamental. It is an

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

generally up to in height, although some specimens may reach . It commonly grows with multiple trunks branched from the base. The bark is rough and irregular, and dark in colour; the young branches are angular, with smooth bark, sometimes reddish in areas of recent growth. The wood is dark and hard. The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are about long and wide, oblong-lanceolate to almost elliptical, acuminate at the apex and slightly indented at the base. In adult plants, the leaves are leathery in texture, glossy on both sides, darker green on the upper surface, with 2(-4) small gland-like depressions on the underside near the base. The petioles are short (up to in length). The flowers of both sexes are white, with splashes of green and pale yellow, releasing a slight odor. The perianth has six components, and there are nine stamens. The predominant flowering season is from June to August (northern hemisphere). The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

is a berry, hard and fleshy and about long, its lower half covered by a dome, giving it a look similar to an

acorn The acorn is the nut (fruit), nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'', ''Notholithocarpus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons (seedling leaves), en ...

. The fruit is dark green, gradually darkening with maturity. The fruit has a single seed wrapped in a hard coat. When the fruits fall they separate from the dome. Germination is favored by moisture and light.

Ecology

''Ocotea foetens'' is endemic to

and the

, appearing in laurel forest habitat, generally between 400 and 1400 m altitude. In the Canary Islands it is not present on Lanzarote or Fuerteventura. In the archipelago of Madeira it is absent from Porto Santo. In the Azores Islands it is an introduced species. It is the only Paleoendemic ''Ocotea'' species in the wetter relict forest areas of Macaronesia. Its berries are consumed mostly by the endemic Madeiran pigeon '' Columba trocaz''.

Folklore

''Ocotea foetens'' was sacred to the Bimbaches, the older inhabitants of El Hierro in the

, and was one of their symbols. The legend states that the "Garoé" was a large laurel tree that assured the life of the Bimbaches, providing them with water in sufficient amounts for their survival. The islands are located where tradewinds occur, and water from clouds condensed on the branches of the tree and it later poured rain around the tree. One of many legends says that the water originating from the tree was led to a hole from which the Bimbaches could provide water. The original tree fell in a storm in 1610. In 1957, a replacement was planted in the same location as the Garoé. It has been growing and is surrounded by

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...

es.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q510517 foetens Flora of the Azores Flora of the Canary Islands Flora of Madeira Flora of Europe Trees of Europe Endemic flora of Macaronesia Trees of Mediterranean climate Trees in religion Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by William Aiton