The stout camphor tree is a member of the camphor family, the Asian trees whose aromatic wood is used as an ingredient in medicine, insect repellent, lacquer, and other products. More than sixty species of camphor trees are found on Taiwan, and the stout camphor tree is believed to be native nowhere else.

Compared with its relatives in the camphor family, the stout camphor tree grows more rapidly and to a greater size. Its leaves are four to five times larger, and its height of 20 or 30 meters makes its stand out from its brethren like a giant among dwarfs.

"Sacred trees," in most people's minds, are generally cypresses or red junipers; those on Alishan and Lalashan are red junipers. Yet Huang Chang-hung of the Taiwan Forestry Bureau once saw a stout camphor tree in the mountains with a diameter of 700 centimeters, making the "sacred tree" on Alishan look like a runt. "A 200- or 300-year-old stout camphor deserves to be called a sacred tree just as much as a thousand-year-old red juniper," he says.

Why the stout camphor tree should be such a standout among its fellows is still a mystery. Some forestry experts suspect that its genes may multiply. It is excellent for carving, providing large blocks that are resistant to warping or rotting. Loggers in the mountains have come upon branches of stout camphor struck off by lightning, overgrown with moss, and seemingly rotted through long ago. But scraped clean, the "rotten wood" turns out to be as lustrous, fresh, and fragrant as a piece from a living tree.

That's why stout camphor wood is highly prized as a material for handicrafts. Wood carvers, in particular, treasure it for its softness, smoothness, graininess, expressiveness, resistance to cracking, and responsiveness to the blade.

The carvers' guild has encouraged its members to use other woods as a substitute, but they prefer stout camphor wood, which remains in short supply. Further pushing up prices is the recent gambling craze: stout camphor wood is considered the best material for the objects and statues used in picking lucky numbers.

Great demand for ling-chih, or "efficacious fungus," reputed to be a panacea in Chinese medicine, poses another threat to the tree. The best variety of ling-chih, the kind that is said to cure any possible side effects caused by the other varieties, is a parasitic fungus that grows only on the stout camphor tree.

The fungus, which cannot yet be cultivated artificially, grows best in hollow stout camphor trees, so some unscrupulous, profit-hungry businessmen have hired workers to go into the mountains, cut holes in the trees, and wait for "harvest." The result, for stout camphor trees, is a calamity.

In fact, the reasons for the short supply and high prices of stout camphor wood go back a long way.

Chinese people used camphor trees for making perfumes and camphor oil as early as the end of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), and they began to export it during the following Ch'ing dynasty. During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan (1895-1945), camphor production was a state-run industry. The several varieties of camphor trees that could be used to produce camphor products were chopped down in vast quantities, and the stout camphor tree was among the casualties.

Many methods have been tried in the past to propagate the trees artificially, but to little avail. Only this year have there been signs of achieving a breakthrough. Because tender shoots often sprout up near the roots of a tree that has been chopped down--shoots that may grow into a tree as high as the mother tree--researchers at the Forestry Institute have brought back some of the shoots for cuttage and experimentation. The survival rate is high and prospects encouraging.

That's good news for nature lovers--and for lovers of fine woodcarvings!

[Picture Caption]

The stout camphor tree is the giant among its genus.

The shoots of stout camphor cultivated in the greenhouse by the Forestry Institute look green and healthy.

Carving is the most important use for stout camphor wood.

(Above) Stout camphor wood, on the left, has a fine, dense texture resistant to cracking. The ordinary camphor wood on the right is not very old. (photo courtesy of Huang Rueyshyang)

(Below) "Timber thieves" chop the wood into blocks and haul it down the mountain.

The shoots of stout camphor cultivated in the greenhouse by the Forestry Institute look green and healthy.

Carving is the most important use for stout camphor wood.

（Above） Stout camphor wood, on the left, has a fine, dense texture resistant to cracking. The ordinary camphor wood on the right is not very old. （photo courtesy of Huang Rueyshyang）

（Below） "Timber thieves" chop the wood into blocks and haul it down the mountain.