Santalum L.
Species plantarum 2:349 (1753)
Name Status: Current
Scientific Description
J. Gathe and Leslie Watson,
Friday 3 October 2008
Common name. Sandalwood. Family Santalaceae.
Habit and leaf form. Trees (small), or shrubs. More or less ‘normal’ plants, or switch-plants; sometimes with the principal photosynthesizing function transferred to stems. Leaves well developed. Plants with roots, or rootless; partially parasitic. On roots of the host. Stem internodes solid. Mesophytic, or xerophytic. Leaves alternate (rarely), or opposite, or whorled; ‘herbaceous’, or leathery, or fleshy; petiolate; gland-dotted, or not gland-dotted; aromatic, or without marked odour; simple; pulvinate. Leaf blades entire; flat; one-veined, or pinnately veined. Leaves without stipules. Leaf blade margins entire. Leaf anatomy. Extra-floral nectaries absent. Stem anatomy. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring.
Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes, or in umbels (rarely and small), or in panicles. The terminal inflorescence unit cymose, or racemose. Inflorescences terminal, or axillary; inflorescences usually shorter than leaves. Flowers pedicellate (short), or sessile; bracteate (the bracts small, scale-like). Bracts deciduous (long before anthesis). Flowers ebracteolate; small; regular; 4 merous; cyclic; tricyclic. Free hypanthium present; commonly cup-shaped, shortly produced beyond the ovary into a broad, open free portion lined by a 4-lobed disc. Perianth sepaline; 4 (usually); 1 -whorled; free, or joined; sepaloid; green, or white, or cream, or yellow, or red; fleshy, or non-fleshy; persistent, or deciduous. Calyx (‘calycode’) 4; 1 -whorled; gamosepalous; valvate; campanulate (or turbinate, in West Australia); regular; fleshy, or non-fleshy; persistent, or not persistent. Androecium 4. Androecial members free of the perianth, or adnate; all equal; free of one another; 1 -whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 4; all more or less similar in shape; isomerous with the perianth; oppositisepalous (opposite the perianth lobes and at the base of the lobes). Anthers basifixed; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse; bilocular; tetrasporangiate. Gynoecium (2–)3(–5) carpelled. The pistil 1 celled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth to isomerous with the perianth. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious, or eu-syncarpous; partly inferior (B), or inferior (AKP). Ovary unilocular; 1 locular. Epigynous disk present. Gynoecium non-stylate, or stylate. Styles 0–1; attenuate from the ovary; apical. Stigmas 1; 2–4 - lobed; capitate (or lobed). Placentation free central. Ovules differentiated to not differentiated; in the single cavity 2–4 (not sure if total or per locule); pendulous; hemianatropous to anatropous.
Fruit and seed features. Fruit fleshy (succulent or firm); indehiscent; a drupe; 1 celled; 1 seeded (per cell). Seeds endospermic. Endosperm oily, or not oily. Seeds without a testa. Cotyledons 2.
Economic uses, etc. Santalum album is the source of timber and perfume (sandalwood/sandalwood oil).
Etymology. From the Greek santalon, from the Arabic sandal, the Indian sandalwood; the common name of some species is "sandalwood".
Taxonomic Literature
Wheeler, J.R. Rye, Barbara L. Koch, B.L. Wilson, A.J.G. Western Australian Herbarium (1992). Flora of the Kimberley region. Western Australian Herbarium. Como, W.A.
Blackall, William E. Grieve, Brian J. (1988). How to know Western Australian wildflowers : a key to the flora of the extratropical regions of Western Australia. Part 1. Dicotyledons (Casuarinaceae to Chenopodiaceae). University of Western Australia Press. Nedlands, W.A.
Marchant, N. G. (1987). Flora of the Perth region. Part 1. Western Australian Herbarium. [South Perth].
Australia. Bureau of Flora and Fauna (1984). Flora of Australia. Volume 22. Rhizophorales to Celastrales. Australian Govt. Pub. Service. Canberra.
