Osmoxylon umbelliferum (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Osmoxylon umbelliferum (Lamk) Merrill

Family: Araliaceae

Synonyms

• Aralia umbellifera Lamk.

Vernacular names

• Ambon sandalwood, sasooroo (En)
• Indonesia: sasuru, tonokuko (Ambon).

Distribution

Indonesia (Moluccas: Ambon, Seram, Sula Islands).

Uses

When dried, the reddish wood is very fragrant and is prized for its scent and is burnt as incense. The wood is difficult to work and releases a strong odour of camphor during planing. Fresh yellow-red resin exuding from cracks in old trees is used for perfumery.

Observations

• Tree with stout trunk, the branches marked with prominent leaf scars.
• Leaves simple, clustered at the end of branches; petiole long; blade lanceolate, 30-36 cm × 10-12 cm, margin dentate.
• Flowers in a large spreading umbel, the radiating branches tripartite, about 30 cm long.

O. umbelliferum is only known from a plate and description from Rumphius and has never been recollected. It has been described as a rare tree from the mountains in Ambon.

Selected sources

• Groom, N., 1997. The new perfume handbook. 2nd edition. Blackie Academic & Professional, London, United Kingdom. 435 pp.
• Heyne, K., 1927. De nuttige planten van Nederlandsch Indië [The useful plants of the Dutch East Indies]. 2nd edition. 3 volumes. Departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel in Nederlandsch Indië. 1953 pp. (3rd edition, 1950. W. van Hoeve, 's-Gravenhage/Bandung, the Netherlands/Indonesia. 1660 pp.).
• van Steenis, C.G.G.J. et al. (Editors), 1950- . Flora Malesiana. Series 1. Vol. 1, 4- . Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, the Netherlands.

Authors

P.C.M. Jansen