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Mountain Sandalwood (Santalum paniculatum)

Description

Santalum paniculatum is an evergreen shrub or a tree, usually with several main stems and somewhat bushy. It usually grows 3 - 10 metres tall, but can become larger if allowed to continue growing with specimens up to 20 metres recorded. The crown can be about as wide as the tree is tall. The bole can be up to 100cm in diameter[312 ]. A root hemi-parasite, it obtains water and nutrients from host plants growing close by and does not grow well in the absence of a host This tree, like several other species of sandalwood tree, produces a highly valued aromatic wood and essential oil. Both the wood and the essential oil are traded internationally[312 ].The tree also has a number of traditional uses, as a medicine and food as well as a source of wood. An attractive tree, it is sometimes grown in home gardens and as an ornamental in Hawaii In the Hawaiian Islands, during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the aromatic lower trunks and rootstock of native Sandalwood species were harvested in great quantity and shipped to China, where they were used to make incense, fine furniture, and other desirable products. The trees were harvested almost to extinction. This extensive and often exploitative sandalwood trade in Hawaii was an early economic activity that adversely affected both the natural environment and the human population. Indeed, this activity represented an early shift from a subsistence to a commercial economy in Hawaii that was to have far-reaching and long-lasting effects in the islands

Taxonomic tree

  • Domain: Eukarya

    • Kingdom: Plantae

      • Phylum: Magnoliophyta

        • Class: Magnoliopsida

          • Order: Santalales

            • Family: Santalaceae

              • Genus: Santalum