The trees are native to Sri Lanka, though they’re cultivated in many tropical countries. Still the Sri Lanka cinnamon is considered to have the best taste.

The trees grow up to 40 feet tall, and are made to have 4 to 5 stems. When the bark turns brown, the stems are eight feet tall and two inches in diameter at the base. The stems are harvested and others made to grow in their place.

After the tree stems are stripped of leaves and twigs, inner and outer bark is removed. As is dries, it forms “rolls” (quills), with the smaller ones inserted into the larger for shipping. It is unground cinnamon.

I would guess the natives of Sri Lanka discovered cinnamon; the odor is so pleasant that Sri Lankans must have noticed its properties as spice a very long time ago. Visitors would have asked about and been shown the trees, making for other points of origin later than Sri Lanka.

I wonder what is it called in arabic and turkish?