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Santalum
Santalum is a genus of woody trees and shrubs, best known for Indian sandalwood (S. album) and its fragrant heartwood used in perfumes and medicine. Growing them is difficult: seeds must be sown fresh, and each tree is a root parasite that needs host plants and full sun.
Santalum is a genus of woody flowering plants in the Santalaceae family, the best known and most commercially valuable of which is the Indian sandalwood tree, S. album. Members of the genus are trees or shrubs. Most are root parasites which photosynthesize their own food, but tap the roots of other species for water and inorganic nutrients. Several species, most notably S. album, produce highly aromatic wood, used for scents and perfumes and for herbal medicine. It has about 25 known species which are native to Island Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Timor-Leste, and the Philippines), Melanesia (Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, and New Caledonia), Australia, Polynesia, the Bonin Islands of Japan, and the Juan Fernández Islands of Chile.
Indian sandalwood (S.
The initial challenges to cultivating Santalum are numerous, not only due to its germination and growth needs, but also the amount of growing time required for the tree to properly mature. Germination of Santalum seeds is not completely understood. Seeds cannot be effectively stored, and must be planted upon harvesting them from a fruiting tree. Even in doing this, the seeds may not germinate. As such, growing saplings can be quite labour-intensive.
Furthermore, although Santalum trees photosynthesize on their own, the trees are hemiparasitic, with roots that seek out and tap the root systems of surrounding trees for water and nutrients. As such, each sapling is usually grown next to four or five host trees. Pruning of host trees is also needed at times, since Santalum trees require much sunlight for growth. Santalum plantations are also vulnerable to illegal harvesting and smuggling because the fragrant heartwood retains high market value even from relatively young trees.
Sweet Quandong · Sandalwood · Ankwerley · Australian sandalwood
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Santalum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
