Aquilaria seed | Agarwood, Aloeswood
LATIN NAME: Aquilaria COMMON NAME: Agarwood, Aloeswood
Botanical Profile
Beyond the famous resin, the Aquilaria tree itself is a fairly unremarkable-looking evergreen of the tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia, with simple, glossy leaves and small, inconspicuous flowers that give little hint of the extraordinarily valuable material some individuals will eventually produce. Only trees that sustain fungal infection or significant physical wounding, whether naturally or through deliberate inoculation, begin depositing the dark, aromatic resin within their heartwood over a period of years.
Science & Conservation
Modern agarwood cultivation research has moved well beyond simply waiting for natural infection, with plantation growers now using controlled inoculation methods, sometimes involving specific fungal strains and sometimes chemical elicitors, to reliably trigger resin formation in cultivated trees within a more predictable timeframe than the decades natural formation can take in the wild. This applied research has become central to efforts to meet enormous global demand for agarwood while easing pressure on increasingly scarce wild Aquilaria populations across their native range.
Landscape & Practical Uses
Once resin has formed, agarwood is carved, distilled into oil, or burned directly as incense across a wide range of cultural and religious traditions from the Middle East to East Asia, representing one of the most economically valuable non-timber forest products in the world. Growing Aquilaria trees, whether for eventual sustainable resin production through inoculation or simply as part of tropical reforestation efforts, supports both a valuable traditional industry and the conservation of a genus under real pressure in the wild.
Growing From Seed
Sow fresh seed promptly into a loose, free-draining tropical mix, keeping it warm and consistently humid throughout, since seed viability drops off quickly if allowed to dry. Provide bright, filtered light echoing this species’ native forest-understorey origins, and bear in mind that the tree itself grows for many years as an ordinary evergreen before any resin formation begins, whether naturally or through later inoculation.
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