Indian Laurel Tree

Wide-crowned and quick to establish, Litsea glutinosa is a laurel-family tree of monsoon Asia and northern Australia, with broad elliptic leaves that are softly hairy beneath and aromatic when crushed. It colonises disturbed ground readily, which is exactly the quality that makes it useful on hard sites.
It is planted for shade and shelter in parks and along roads, and used in revegetation where a fast evergreen canopy is needed on poor soil.
Litsea glutinosa is a workhorse shade tree for hard sites, and it puts canopy over disturbed ground faster than most.