Where does agarwood come from, how tall can it grow, and how does it differ from sandalwood?
Agarwood, also called xiangcai, white wood incense, tooth incense tree, daughter incense, etc., can be used as a traditional precious medicinal material and a precious natural spice. Because people arbitrarily collect its resin for medicine, in recent years the number of agarwood has dropped sharply, and it is a vulnerable species. In 1999 it became a national second-class key protected wild plant. So, where does agarwood come from? How tall can it generally grow? How does it differ from sandalwood?
1. Where does agarwood come from?
Agarwood is produced in Guangdong, Hainan, Guangxi, and Fujian in China. It likes to grow in low-altitude mountainous areas, hills, and open forests in sunny places beside roads.
2. How tall can agarwood generally grow?
According to data on the genus Aquilaria, agarwood can generally grow 5-15 m tall. It is a weak heliophilous tree species and is still shade-tolerant when young. It grows relatively slowly when young, and gradually speeds up after 10 years. For 20-30-year-old plants, the average annual height growth can reach 90 cm, and the average DBH growth can reach 1 cm. It blooms from March to June, and the fruit matures from September to October.
3. What is the difference between agarwood and sandalwood?
Agarwood and sandalwood are relatively similar, but the two species are also easy to distinguish. In terms of fragrance, sandalwood has a relatively rich scent and releases a large amount of fragrance even in its natural state, while agarwood has very little scent in its natural state, and some can basically not be smelled, but once ignited or heated it gives off a large amount of fragrance. Second, the tree species are different. Sandalwood is taken directly from the woody heartwood of sandalwood trees, while agarwood is actually formed by tree species from 4 major families, Lauraceae, Burseraceae, Euphorbiaceae, and Thymelaeaceae. These four families of tree species, after being injured while alive and then dying, are infected by fungi and form it. Third, sandalwood is relatively common, while agarwood is honored as the first of the four incenses: agarwood, sandalwood, ambergris, and musk.