Aquilaria

Life-forms

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Eudicots
Cladus: Core eudicots
Cladus: Rosids
Cladus: Eurosids II
Ordo: Malvales

Familia: Thymelaeaceae
Genus: Aquilaria
Species: A. acuminata – A. apiculata – A. baillonii – A. banaensae – A. banaensis – A. beccariana – A. brachyantha – A. citrinicarpa – A. crassna – A. cumingiana – A. decemcostata – A. filaria – A. grandiflora – A. hirta – A. khasiana – A. malaccensis – A. microcarpa – A. ophispermum – A. parvifolia – A. pentandra – A. rostrata – A. rugosa – A. sinensis – A. subintegra – A. urdanetensis – A. yunnanensis
Name

Aquilaria Lam. Encycl. 2: 610 (1788)
Synonymy

Agallochum Lam. Encycl. 1: 48 (1783)
Aloexylum Lour. Fl. Cochinch.: 267 (1790)
Ophispermum Lour. Fl. Cochinch.: 280 (1790)
Gyrinopsis Decne. Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., sér. 2, 19: 41 (1843)
Decaisnella Kuntze Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 581 (1891)
Aquilariella Tiegh. Bull. Soc. Bot. France 40: 77 (1893)

References

Encycl. (Lamarck) 1: 49. 1783 [2 Dec 1783]

Vernacular names
Deutsch: Adlerholzbäume
മലയാളം: അകില
Tiếng Việt: Cây dó trầm

Aquilaria is a genus of fifteen[1] species of trees, called lign aloes or lign-aloes trees, in the family Thymelaeaceae, native to southeast Asia. They occur particularly in the rainforests of Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Northeast India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Borneo and New Guinea. The trees grow to 6–20 m tall. The leaves are alternate, 5–11 cm long and 2–4 cm broad, with a short acuminate apex and an entire margin. The flowers are yellowish-green, produced in an umbel; the fruit is a woody capsule 2.5–3 cm long.

The genus is best known, together with Gyrinops, as the principal producer of the resin-suffused agarwood used in aromatic incense production, especially Aquilaria malaccensis.[1][2] The depletion of wild trees from indiscriminate cutting for agarwood has resulted in the trees being listed and protected as an endangered species.[1][2][3] Projects are currently underway in some countries in southeast Asia to infect cultivated Aquilaria trees artificially to produce agarwood in a sustainable manner.[3] In Indonesia, for example, there have been proposals to encourage the planting of gahara, as it is known locally, in eastern Indonesia, particularly in the province of Papua.[4]
Species
Aquilaria sinensis habitus

Aquilaria acuminata (Merr.) Quisumb., originally Gyrinopsis acuminata
Aquilaria apiculata Merr.
Aquilaria baillonii Pierre ex Lecomte & Leandri
Aquilaria banaensae Phamh.
Aquilaria beccariana Tiegh
Aquilaria brachyantha (Merr.) Hallier f.
Aquilaria citrinicarpa (Elmer) Hallier f.
Aquilaria crassna Pierre ex Lecomte
Aquilaria cumingiana (Decne.) Ridl.
Aquilaria filaria (Oken) Merr.
Aquilaria grandiflora Benth.
Aquilaria hirta Ridl.
Aquilaria malaccensis, Lam., synonyms A. agallocha and A. secundaria[3]
Aquilaria microcarpa Baill.
Aquilaria ophispermum Poir.
Aquilaria parvifolia (Quisumb.) Ding Hou
Aquilaria pentandra Blanco
Aquilaria rostrata Ridl.
Aquilaria rugosa K.Le-Cong & Kessler
Aquilaria sinensis Gilg
Aquilaria subintegra Ding Hou
Aquilaria urdanetensis Hallier (Philippines)
Aquilaria yunnanensis S.C.Huang

References

Ng, L.T., Chang Y.S. and Kadir, A.A. (1997) "A review on agar (gaharu) producing Aquilaria species" Journal of Tropical Forest Products 2(2): pp. 272-285
Barden, Angela (2000) Heart of the Matter: Agarwood Use and Trade and CITES Implementation for Aquilaria malaccensis TRAFFIC International, Cambridge, ISBN 1-85850-177-6
Broad, S. (1995) "Agarwood harvesting in Vietnam" TRAFFIC Bulletin 15:96
Theresia Sufa, 'Gaharu: Indonesia's endangered fragrant wood', The Jakarta Post, 2 February 2010.