Santalum album; sandalwood

Japanese: ビャクダン(白檀) - ビャクダン（英語表記）Santalum album; sandalwood

A semi-parasitic evergreen tree of the Santalaceae family native to tropical Asia. The trunk can reach a height of 3-10 m. When germinating, it lives independently, but when it grows, it parasitizes any host with suckers several mm in diameter. The trunk is upright, branched, and bushy. The leaves are opposite, lanceolate, elliptical, 5-8 cm long, entire. The flowers are cone-shaped cymes at the terminal end, with small bracts at the base of the peduncle. There are four tepals, red on the inside and greenish-yellow on the outside, which later turn yellowish-white. The fruit is spherical, about 1 cm long, with the tepals remaining at the top in the shape of a collar, and ripens to black. The heartwood is pale yellow and fragrant, and is known as sandalwood. This wood is used for Buddhist statues, artistic sculptures, and other crafts, and the heartwood and roots are cut into strips and steam distilled to produce sandal oil, which is highly valued as a perfume oil. Its original habitat is said to be the Sunda Islands of Indonesia, but it is cultivated in eastern India and is known to have escaped into the wild. Similar species of the same genus grow wild in the Pacific islands of Hawaii and the Ogasawara Islands.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

ビャクダン科の半寄生常緑高木で，熱帯アジア原産。幹の高さは3～10mにもなる。発芽時には独立して生活するが，生長すると直径数 mmの吸盤で相手を選ばず寄生する。幹は直立し分枝が多く，こんもりと茂る。葉は対生し，長さ5～8cmの披針状楕円形で全縁。花は円錐形の集散花序で頂生し，花柄の基部に小さな包葉をもつ。花被片は4枚，内面は紅色で外面は緑黄色，のちに黄白色となる。果実は球形で約 1cmで上端に花被がカラー (襟) 状に残存し，黒熟する。心材は淡黄色で芳香があり，白檀材として知られる。この材は仏像，美術彫刻，その他の細工に用い，また心材，根を細片とし，水蒸気蒸留法によってサンダル油を生産するが，これは香油として価値の高いものである。本来の自生地はインドネシアのスンダ列島といわれるが，インドの東部で栽培され，その逸出とみられる野生も知られている。また同属の近似種がハワイや小笠原など太平洋諸島に自生している。

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