- Tepals erect at anthesis. 
- Staminodia of the fourth whorl present, having a distinct filament and a well developed 
sagittate or triangular head. 
- Tepals either complete or partially persistent in fruit; their bases not strongly imbricate 
and clasping the base of the fruit. 
- Hypanthium distinct, shallow, not accrescent in fruit but forming a conspicuous cupule. 
- Fruit pedicel distally swollen, turbinate. 
Leaf venation pattern and presence of domatia were not taken as critical features to 
incorporate neotropical species in Cinnamomum, because these characters vary among the Old 
World species of the genus. Thus, I included a species in the genus regardless of the condition of 
these traits, and later I assessed their relevance on the relationships among the neotropical 
species, and the relationship between these ones and the Old World species. Therefore, initially, 
pinninerved and triplinerved species were considered congeneric. The validity of this preliminary 
assertion is tested afterwards in the phylogeny section. 
I also included those species which presented tepals entirely deciduous soon after anthesis 
as the only exception of the Cinnamomum character syndrome, for it seemed an extreme of 
variation in tepal persistence and a possible trend of evolution within the genus. Besides, the 
absence of tepals in the fruit of these species might be useful to evaluate the likelihood of parallel 
evolution for this trait among genera related to Cinnamomum, such as Ocotea and Persea. 
Next, the conspectus for the neotropical species recognized in Cinnamomum followed by 
the taxonomic treatment is presented. 
