Plant of the Month
Sandalwood

Synonyms for Sandalwood: chandan, cendana, white sandalwood, East Indian sandalwood, sandal, sandal tree, sandalwood, sanderswood, white saunders, yellow saunders
Scientific Name: Santalum album L.
Family: Santalaceae (sandalwood family)

Description:

No one who has travelled in India will ever forget the characteristic scent of sandalwood. It permeates rooms, lingers in clothing and envelops the body. The source of this scent is a tree that can grow to a height of ten metres, is evergreen and flowers throughout the year. Sandalwood is not fussy about where it grows – whether in fertile valleys or on dry mountainsides, it thrives anywhere. Indeed, the scent of its wood seems to be more intense the dryer and poorer the soil it grows in. Its leaves are large and leathery, somewhat like laurel leaves. Its unscented flowers usually have four petals which on opening look yellow but gradually take on a deep red colour. They grow in clusters at the tips of the branches.
Sandalwood trees are semi-parasites. They derive some of their nourishment from the root systems of neighbouring plants, but can also survive alone, without a host plant. A whole range of different plants can serve them as host – for example tall grasses such as Kans grass (Saccharum spontanum), palms and plants of the Araliaceae family. On contact with the roots of the host plant, the root tips of the sandalwood saplings form an organ called a haustorium which penetrates the roots of the host. As this grows, it forms nodules up to two centimetres in size which allow the sandalwood tree to take over the host roots. The sandalwood tree draws so much nourishment from the host plant that the latter struggles to grow.