[9] The leaves are lauroid, they are commonly dark green glossy with sometimes brown on the underside and fragrant oil cells.

Most species of Ocotea are distributed across the tropical Americas, from Mexico to Northern Argentina including the West Indies.

[13] Most relatively small fruit species are of great environmental importance because they are the food of many endemic birds and mammals, especially in Islands, and premontane and montane forests.

[24] Species of Ocotea can be attacked by various rot-inducing root pathogens, including Loweporus inflexibilis, Phellinus apiahynus[25] and Phytophthora cinnamomi.

[26] Some Ocotea species are used as nesting sites by ants, which may live in leaf pockets or in hollowed-out stems.

The ants patrol their host plants more frequently in response to disturbance or to the appearance of insect pests such as grasshoppers.

East African camphorwood (O. usambarensis), Peruvian rosewood (O. cernua) and Brazilian sassafras (O. odorifera) are traded internationally.

Dried fruit cupules of ishpingo (O. quixos) are used in Ecuador to flavor beverages, such as colada morada.

[citation needed] †Ocotea hradekensis from the early Miocene, has been described from fragmentary fossil leaf compressions that have been found in the Kristina Mine at Hrádek nad Nisou in North Bohemia, the Czech Republic.