Aquilaria rostrata

Botanical Description

Aquilaria rostrata is an evergreen tree[ 451 Title Flora Malesiana Series 1 Publication Author Various Website http://www.archive.org Publisher Nationaal Herbarium Nederiand, Universiteit Leiden branch Year 0 ISBN Description A massive treatment of the plants of the Malaysian Archipelago. Much of it has been made available to download from the Internet ]. The wood of all members of this genus, when infected with a fungus, becomes a source of agarwood, which is very aromatic and highly valued as an incense, perfume and medicine. The plant also provides a useful fibre. This poorly known tree is confined to a single location in the State of Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia. Although it is only known from type material collected in 1911, given the known threats to other Aquilaria species, it seems highly probable that this species is very threatened. Attempts are required to relocate this species in the wild and to assess its status properly; it may well already be extinct. The fungi-infected heartwood of plants in this genus has a high commercial value and numerous trees are cut down, many of them uninfected by the fungus, in order to harvest just a few kilograms of the diseased wood. The increase in levels of trade over the past decade has resulted in overexploitation throughout the range of the genus. The plant is classified as 'Critically Endangered' in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species(2013)[ 338 Title IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Publication Author Website http://www.iucnredlist.org/ Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description A list of plants under threat and facing possible extinction, usually with brief details of the threats and information on habitat. ].