Sandal Wood White, Chandan White - 0.5 kg Seeds

White Sandalwood or Chandan (Santalum album) is a small, slow-growing evergreen tree celebrated for its intensely fragrant, fine-grained heartwood and the precious sandalwood oil distilled from it. It is a hemiparasite, drawing some of its nutrients through root connections to neighbouring host plants.

Native to the dry deciduous tracts of peninsular India, especially Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, it is one of the country's most valuable and protected trees, its wood and oil used in perfumery, incense, carving, cosmetics and Ayurvedic medicine. Successful raising depends on growing it alongside a suitable nitrogen-fixing host such as red gram or Cassia.

• Family: Santalaceae
• Native region: peninsular India
• Mature height: 4-9 m
• Growth rate: slow

Soak the seeds in water for 24-48 hours; a dilute gibberellic-acid soak markedly improves and speeds germination. Sow about 1 cm deep in sandy soil, ideally near a young host plant, and keep warm and lightly moist; germination is slow and staggered, often 30 days or more. Transplant the seedlings with their host while still small, taking care not to disturb the roots.