White Sandalwood
Santalum album. Linn commonly known as East Indian sandalwood or chandan belongs to the family Santalaceae. It is highly valuable and becoming endangered species. It is distributed all over the country and more than 90% lies in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu covering 8300 sq kms. The essential oil obtained from this wood has occupied significant place in perfumery industries/market. Although it is available in some other countries still the Indian Sandalwood has retained its dominance over other sources because of its quality.
taxonomy
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Viridiplantae – Vascular plants
Infrakingdom: Streptophyta – Land plants
Superdivision: Embryophyta
Division: Tracheophyta – Flowering plants
Subdivision: Spermatophytina – Seed plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Superorder: Santalanae
Order: Santalales
Family: Santalaceae
Genus: Santalum
Species: Santalum album L.
Common name: sandalwood
Vernacular Name
Common Name: Sandalwood, Indian sandalwood, Fragrant sandalwood, White Sandalwood
Bengali: Chandan, Shwetchandan, Srikhanda,
Gujarati: Sukhada
Hindi: Chandan(चन्दन), Sandal(संदल), Malayagiri chandan(मलयगिरि चन्दन), safed chandan(सफ़ेद चन्दन)
Kannada: Bavanna, Agarugandha, Sri Gandha, Bhadrasri, Chandala
Manipuri: Chandan
Malayalam: Chandanam, chandana-mutti
Marathi: Gandhachakoda, Chandan
Oriya: Valgaka
Sanskrit: Anindita, Arishta-phalam, Bhadrasara, Chandanam, Candanah, shreekhanda
Tamil: Anukkam, Asam, Chandanam, Chandanam, Anukkam, Asam, Sandanam, Sandhanam
Telugu: Bhadrasri, Chandanamu, Tella Chandanam
Urdu: Sandal safaid
morphology
Tree characteristics
Santalum album is a small tropical tree attaining a height of 4 to 20 meters and a girth of 1 to 2.4 meters. The shape of the leaves vary with six morphological types recognized widely. It may live to more than hundred years of age. The tree is variable in habit, usually upright to sprawling, and may intertwine with other species. The plant parasitises the roots of other tree species, with a haustorium adaptation on its own roots, but without major detriment to its hosts. An individual will form a non-obligate relationship with a number of other plants.
Leaf
Leaves are opposite and decussate, sometimes show whorled arrangement. The shape of leaf varies and six morphological types have been widely recognised. They are Ovate, Lanceolate, Elliptic, Linear, Big and Small.
Stem
Stem is initially green and tender, gradually turns brownish and becomes hard. The bark is reddish brown or dark brown and red inside. Stem is smooth in young trees, turns rough with deep vertical cracks in mature trees. Wood is hard, very close grained, oily. Sapwood is white, scentless, heartwood is yellowish to brown and strongly scented.
Transverse section of young stem is more or less oval. The epidermis is papillose and covered externally witfi thin cuticle. The parenchymatous cortex is distinguishable into peripheral zone of compact cells with chloroplast and an inner zone of intercellular spaced cells. Endodermis is absent. A discontinuous ring of 14-16 collateral, open and endarch primary vascular bundles form the vascular supply to the stem. Each bundle is covered by a patch of thin walled cells which form the discontinuous pericycle. These cells later become lignified and constitute pericycle fibres. The cells of the pith are parenchymatous with inter cellular spaces. The pith cells in the old stem are polygonal in shape and are lignified. Secondary xylem contains growth rings with the early formed wood appearing less dense than late wood could distinguish the growth rings with the help of hand lens during the early stage of growth. However, they could not determine the age of trees by counting these growth rings
Root
The primary root is moderately long, delicate and flexuose. Lateral roots are moderate in number, fibrous, delicate and distributed down the main root. Roots at an early stage develop nodular growth, the first sign of haustoria. However, A small number of sandal plants does exist without hausorial nodules even upto two years.
The primary root is distinctly diarch, open and exarch. The secondary growth is profuse. The secondary xylem formed; lie in close proximity to that of the primary xylem. The diarch nature of the root becomes indistinct. Structure of the mature root is essentially similar to that of stem. Secondary xylem far exceeds secondary phloem in volume. Tap root system is not deep and lateral root runs almost parallel to the ground and young rootlets produce haustoria which establish connections with neighbouring host roots for absorption of mineral salts. Not all haustoria are functional. Root contains scented oil.
Flower
Flowers are purplish brown, unscented and are borne in axillary or terminal cymose panicles. The floral organs develop in acropetal succession. The first to appear are the four perianth lobes followed by epigynous stamens,.carpels and placental column. Flowers are tetra to pentamerous, rarely hexamerous and lermaphrodite. The ovary is semi-inferior and unilocular with three ovules lodged in three depressions at the base: The depressions at the base of the ovary are formed in later stages of development of flower when the embryo sac comes out of the ovule and crushes the cells at the base of the ovary to form small depressions in which the tip of the ovules and the embryo sac rest.
The placental column is straight, generally bearing three, Ovules in hexamerous flowers. However, four ovules are more frequent. The long style is traversed by a narrow canal and terminates in 3 or 4 lobed stigma.
Fruit
Fruit is a drupe, purplish when fully mature and single seeded. Shapes of fruit vary ranging from round to oblong and sometimes show tapering ends
Seeds
Seeds are obtained by removing the fleshy portion of the fruit. They are naked, lacking testa. The dicotyledonous embryo occupies nearly the entire length of the albuminous seed. The endosperm contains 50 to 60 percent of drying oil, protein and mineral matter. The stony endocarp, although not to be called seed coat, is referred as seed coat literally, though it is a false seed coat. Seeds show polymorphic characters, varying in size and shape.
Habitat
Santalum album occurs from coastal dry forests up to 700 m elevation. It normally grows in sandy or stony red soils, but a wide range of soil types are inhabited. This habitat has a temperature range from 0° C to 48° C and annual rainfall between 500 and 3000 mm.
Santalum album is an evergreen tree. It can grow to a height of 20 m and attain a girth of over 1.5 m. It flowers and fruits twice a year during March-April and September-October. Trees start flowering from 3 years of age. Seed production generally is good in one of the seasons. Certain trees flower only once a year and some do not flower regularly. About 6000 seeds make 1 kg. Seeds can be collected directly from the tree. The fruits should be depulped, washed thoroughly in water, dried under shade, and stored in airtight containers. Sandalwood is a hemi root parasite. It can parasitize over 300 species from grass to another sandal plant. Under gregarious growing conditions, self-parasitism is common. Lack of understanding of the dynamics of parasitism has been the cause of failure of pure plantations in the past. Sandalwood establishes haustorial connections with the host plants and depends on them for its requirement of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. It can obtain other nutrients on its own. Seedlings can survive without a host for 3 years but thereafter they tend to die. In a natural population 2 percent of seedlings do not produce haustoria and they fail to survive on their own beyond 3 years of age.
