Aquilaria hirta

• Overview
• Interesting Facts
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Vulnerable

Interesting Facts

Description

Family Thymelaeaceae

Shrubs or small trees , rarely herbs, evergreen or deciduous. Bark tough and fibrous . Leaves opposite or alternate, rarely some ternate , estipulate; blade simple , entire, pinnately veined, articulate at base . Plants mostly bisexual , sometimes dioecious. Inflorescences terminal or subterminal , less often axillary , sometimes on brachyblasts , sessile or pedunculate , basically racemose, sometimes capitate, spicate , umbelliform, or fascicled. Flowers usually actinomorphic , bisexual or unisexual (plants then mostly dioecious), bracteate (sometimes bracts forming an involucre) or ebracteate , sessile or pedicellate . Calyx tubular , campanulate , or infundibuliform , usually corollalike, 4- or 5(or 6) -merous, mostly caducous , sometimes circumscissile, or persistent ; lobes imbricate. Petals absent or represented by 4-12 scales , inserted at or near throat of calyx tube (Aquilaria) . Stamens 2 to many, usually as many as calyx lobes and opposite them or twice as many. Hypognous disk usually present at base of ovary, scalelike, annular or cup-shaped, sometimes absent. Ovary superior, 1- or 2-loculed, sessile or shortly stipitate ; ovules solitary in each locule, pendulous, anatropous ; style filiform , caducous, sometimes very short or obscure , terminal or eccentric ; stigma capitate, globose , subglobose, subclavate, or pyramidal , sometimes papilose. Fruit mostly indehiscent, dry or fleshy , sometimes a loculicidal capsule (Aquilaria) . Seeds with or without endosperm, embryo straight.

About 48 genera and ca. 650 species: widely distributed in both hemispheres; nine genera and 115 species (89 endemic) in China.

The phloem contains very strong fibers, which make the bark of many species very suitable for the manufacture of high-quality paper such as that used for bank notes . The stems are extremely supple and difficult to break and are used as a substitute for string. Most species are poisonous and some are important medicinally.[1]

Genus Aquilaria

Trees or treelets. Leaves alternate, leaf blade pinnately veined; veins slender, ascending toward margins and joining several intramarginal veins . Inflorescences axillary or terminal , umbelliform or paniculiform , usually without involucre; peduncle short or absent. Flowers bisexual , pedicellate , usually 5-merous. Calyx tube persistent , yellow or yellowish green, campanulate ; lobes 5, reflexed or erect . Petaloid appendages twice as many as the lobes, inserted at throat of tube, scalelike, united in a ring at base , usually densely pubescent or puberulous . Stamens twice as many as calyx lobes, alternating with petaloid appendages; filaments short or absent; anthers oblong , dorsifixed , pubescent, connectives broad. Disk absent. Ovary subsessile , pubescent, 2-loculed or incompletely 2-loculed; style very short; stigma capitate. Fruit a 2-valved loculicidal capsule, compressed laterally, obovoid , base enclosed by persistent calyx; pericarp leathery or woody. Seeds 2 or 1 by abortion , ovoid or ellipsoid , on carunclelike strongly tapered funicle ; testa crustaceous , endosperm absent; cotyledons thick, plano-convex .

About 15 species: Bhutan, Cambodia, China, NE India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam; two species (both endemic) in China.

Members of this genus are important as the source of agarwood, a very highly prized aromatic gum produced in the wood in response to injury. It is used as incense, in perfumery, and in traditional medicine. Trees have been over-harvested throughout the range of the genus, and most species are of conservation concern. The genus as a whole is included in Category 2 of CITES .[2]

Habitat

Biome: Terrestrial [3].

Ecology: A small tree occurring in lowland forest on hill slopes .[3].

Taxonomy

Notes

Publishing author : Ridl. Publication : J. Straits Branch Roy. Asiat. Soc. 35: 78 1901 [Jan 1901]

Similar Species

Members of the genus Aquilaria

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 2 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

A. crassna (Agar Wood) · A. malaccensis (Agarwood)

More Info

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• Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books

Further Reading

• Conservation and sustainable management of trees, report of the third regional workshop, held at Army Hotel, Hanoi, Viet Nam, 18-21 August, 1997 WCMC url p. 28.
• Flora Malesiana. general editor, C.G.G.J. van Steenis. Djakarta: Noordhoff-Kolff, 1950- url p. 7.
• The World List of Threatened Trees WCMC, IUCN url p. 61.
• Huang Shuchung & Zhang Zerong. 1999. Thymelaeaceae. In: Ku Tsuechih, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 52(1): 287-400.
• Huang Shuchung & Zhang Zerong. 1999. Thymelaeaceae. In: Ku Tsuechih, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 52(1): 287-400.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 15, 2012.
• IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. . Downloaded on January 28, 2012.
• World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. Aquilaria hirta. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloadedon 30January2012.

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 5924252
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 15880519
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:20001505-1
• International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID: 20001505
• IUCN ID: 192283
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 1022330

Footnotes

1. Yinzheng Wang, Michael G. Gilbert, Brian F. Mathew, Christopher Brickell & Lorin I. Nevling "Thymelaeaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 13 Page 213. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. Yinzheng Wang, Lorin I. Nevling & Michael G. Gilbert "Aquilaria". in Flora of China Vol. 13 Page 213, 214. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
3. World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. Aquilaria hirta. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 30 January 2012. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.