From Common Forest Trees of Hawaii

Forest Sandalwood
Santalum freycinetianum
Mistletoe/Toadflax family (Santalaceae)

Native species ()

This species with its varieties will serve as an example of the red-flowered sandalwoods. Reported as a large tree to 82 ft (25 ) high and 3 ft (0.9 ) in trunk diameter in the natural forest, with slender drooping branches. Bark of small trunks gray, smoothish.


©2009 David Eickhoff
Leaves hairless, with leafstalk of 3⁄8–3⁄4 inch (1–2 ), often reddish. Blades are narrowly or lance-shaped, 2–4 inches (5–10 ) long and 3⁄4–1 1⁄4 inches (2–4 ) wide, short-pointed at both ends, slightly turned under at edges, thin, more or less folded along somewhat curved, upper surface shiny dark green, lower surface dull and paler.

Flower clusters () and lateral, branched. Flowers 3–9 or more, nearly stalkless, about 1⁄4 inch (6 ) long yellowish to white, turning red in age, composed of narrow bell-shaped tube () with four- four short attached near base of tube and and with one-celled partly inferior, threadlike and mostly three-

() elliptical, 5⁄16–5⁄8 inch (8–15 ) long, with ring scar at purplish black with a bloom, within greenish and juicy.

Fairly common in dry forests of both Waianae and Koolau Ranges, Oahu. More common in the Waianae Range which is drier, especially at 800–2000 ft (244–610 ).

Special areas
Aiea, Waimea Arboretum, Kamehameha School

Range
Oahu, Kauai, Lanai, and Maui

This species was greatly reduced as a forest tree during the early part of the last century because of the export of the fragrant wood. Its name commemorates Henri Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet (1779–1840), leader of a French world expedition in 1817–20. The generic name is derived from the Greek name for sandalwood.

Besides the typical variety on Oahu, two varieties formerly treated as species, are distinguished: Kauai sandalwood, Santalum freycinetianum var. pyrularium (Gray) Stemm., on Kauai, and Lanai sandalwood, S. freycinetianum var. lanaiense Rock, on Lanai and Maui, listed as endangered.

The two other species of sandalwood native to Hawaii are:

Hawaii sandalwood, Santalum paniculatum Hook. & Arn., grows on the Island of Hawaii in dry forests and lava fields at 1500–6500 ft (457–1981 ), sometimes to 8000 ft (2438 ). It has greenish flowers and may be seen at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park near Volcano House.

Haleakala sandalwood, Santalum haleakalae Hillebr., grows on Maui at 6000–8800 ft (1829–2682 ). Large clusters of flowers that become deep red as they age make this the most beautiful species. It is easily seen near Hosmer Grove in Haleakala National Park.

stamen -- the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower; The stamen consists of an anther supported by a filament.

cm -- A centimeter which is about 0.4 inches.

m -- A meter is about 10% larger than a yard.

stigma - The tip of a pistil that receives the pollen.

endemic -- when restricted to a certain country or area.

style -- This is a long and thread-like structure that connects the stigma with the ovary. A flower may have a single style, or several of them.

midrib -- The central and most prominent vein of a leaf or leaf-like thing.

The apex is the tip or the furthest point from the attachment.

alternate -- leaves alternate along the main stem and are attached singly.

terminal -- Located at the end (the tip or the apex).

cyme -- Multiple flower stalks emerge from a single point and the flowers at the end bloom first.

A pistil is the female structure of many flowers. It contains one or more carpels. Each carpel contins an ovary, style and stigma. The stigma receives the pollen which grows thru the style to reach the ovary.

An evergreen tree retains a large portion of its green leaves all year.

elliptic -- Oval, with no point or a very short point.

In an opposite leaf arrangement the leaves come in pairs with one leaf on each side of a stem.

lobe -- Rounded parts of a leaf (or other organ). Lobes bulge out about 1/4 of the leaf diameter.

calyx -- the sepals of a flower, typically forming a whorl that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

drupe -- A fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a hardened shell containing a seed. A peach is a drupe. A raspberry is composed of drupelets.

The hypanthium or floral cup is a cup-like structure formed by the fused bases of the stamens, petals, and sepals.

mm -- millimeter. About 1/25th of an inch.

An ovary is a part of the female reproductive organ of the flower. Above the ovary is the style and the stigma, which is where the pollen lands and germinates to grow down through the style to the ovary.