'''Drimys winteri''' (Winter's Bark), a slender
tree up to 20 m tall, native to the
Magellanic and
Valdivian temperate rain forests of Chile and Argentina, where it forms a dominant tree in the coastal evergreen forests. It is found from 32° lat.S to
Cape Horn (56 lat. S), from sea level up to 1200 metres above sea level. In its southernmost natural range it can tolerate temperatures down to -20ºC. It is also grown as an
ornamental plant for its red-brown bark and bright green fragrant leaves, and its clusters of creamy white
jasmine-scented flowers.The bark is gray, thick and soft and is milled and fixed as pepper replacement in Argentina and Chile. ''D. winteri'' was the first commercial source of
vitamin C. Grows well in South England, but in
Faroe Islands, which provenances were directly brought from the southern forests of
Tierra del Fuego has proved to be very much hardier.
[1]
Wood: reddish color and heavy, it has a very beautiful engraving. It is used for furniture and music instruments. Not durable outdoors because continuous rainfalls damage it. The wood is no good for making bonfires because gives off a spicy smoke.
References
1. Højgaard, A., J. Jóhansen, and S. Ødum (eds) 1989. A century of tree planting in the Faroe Islands. Føroya Frodskaparfelag, Torshavn.
External links
★
History, botanical origin, description, etc. Hanburgy, Daniel and Friedrich August Flückiger (1879). ''Pharmacographia; a History of the Principal Drugs of Vegetable Origin...'' London: Macmillan and Co. pp 17-20.