Chandan

Chandan

Scientific name: Santalum album

Taxonomic Position According to Cronquist

Kingdom: Plantae

Phyllum: Magnoliophyta

Class: Magnoliopsida

Order: Santalales

Family: Santalaceae

Genus: Santalum

Species:  album

Botanical Description

Habit: A small evergreen glabrous tree, up to 6-15 m in height, bark rough, cracked, with narrow horizontal fissures.

Leaves: Leaves 22-31 x 7-11 mm, opposite to subopposite, coriaceous, brittle, elliptic, ovate, apex acute or shortly acuminate, base obtuse, attenuate, margin undulate, petioles slender, 8-9 x 1.2-1.5 mm, upper surface involuted, lower surface angular.

Inflorescence: Inflorescence terminal and axillary, cauliflorous  on  young   shoots,  pedunculate, peduncles slender, 10-13 x 0.5-0.7 mm, angular, sulcate.

Flowers: Flowers scented, creamy-white, turning red and purple, shortly pedicellate, pedicels slender, angular, 1.0-1.5 x 0.5 mm, receptacle 1.0-1.5 x 2.0 mm. Tepals large, narrowly deltoid, 3.0-3.5 x 1.0-1.5 mm, reflexed.

Androecium: Filaments narrow, 1.4-1.5 x 0.3 mm, weakly dilated at the base.

Gynoecium: Styles angular, extending beyond the hypanthium, 2.5-2.7 x 0.3 mm, broadening towards the base, stigmas 3-lobed, weakly papillate, nectary concave, deeply 5-lobed, lobes tongue-shaped, up to 1 mm long, protruding between the perianth segments.

Fruits: Fruit a drupe. 8-10 x8-9 mm, globose, black when ripe, exoearpsmooth,endocarpglobose,hard,with 3 short ribs

Economic Importance:The wood is a source of sandalwood oil, which is widely used in perfumery and traditional medicine; the active constituent is santalo, which has cooling and expectorant properties. This plant is currently the most commercially valuable species containing the highest concentrations and the best quality oil.

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