Chandan (Sandalwood) Tree (Santalum album): Where It Grows in India and How to Plant It
Santalum album
Chandan, or Indian sandalwood (Santalum album), is a hemi-parasitic tree that cannot grow without a host plant beside it. How to plant it with the right host, where it grows in India including Rajasthan, how to recognise it and tell it from red sandalwood, care for the first three years, and the legal and theft cautions.
Overview
Chandan, also called Indian sandalwood (Hindi चंदन, Santalum album), is an evergreen tree that grows mainly in peninsular India and, more and more, on farms in Gujarat and Rajasthan, valued for its fragrant heartwood. It is a hemi-parasite: it makes food in its green leaves, but its roots also join the roots of nearby plants and draw water and nutrients from them. ICFRE-IWST's Sandalwood Information System (published on Vikaspedia) says a seedling planted without a lasting host plant becomes stunted, with pale yellow leaves, and usually dies within about a year.
The name chandan is also used for red sandalwood, or lal chandan, a completely different tree, Pterocarpus santalinus. This page is about white sandalwood (safed chandan).
Photo: "Santalum album" by Shyamal, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Quick facts
| Scientific name | Santalum album L. |
| Family | Santalaceae (sandalwood family) |
| Hindi name | चंदन (Chandan), also सफेद चंदन (Safed chandan) and श्रीखंड (Shrikhand) |
| English names | Sandalwood, Indian sandalwood, East Indian sandalwood, white sandalwood |
| Other names | Chandana (Sanskrit), Santhanam (Tamil), Sukhad (Gujarati) (ICRAF) |
| Mature height | Up to about 20 m (ICFRE-IWST) |
| Growth rate | Slow; heartwood usually starts forming at about 10–13 years (ICFRE-IWST) |
| Flowering | Often twice a year, March–April and September–October, from about 3 years of age (ICFRE-IWST) |
| Water need | Moderate: drought-hardy but cannot take waterlogging (ICRAF); farms in Rajasthan need irrigation in summer and winter (Wood is Good, 2021) |
| Planting season | With the monsoon; months are a guide, see When to plant |
| Grows well in | The dry south and central India; with care and irrigation in Gujarat and Rajasthan |
| Conservation status | Vulnerable (IUCN Red List global assessment, 2019) |
Sources: Vikaspedia (Govt of India / C-DAC): Sandalwood (source: Sandalwood Information System, ICFRE-IWST Bengaluru); Orwa C. et al. (2009). Agroforestree Database 4.0: Santalum album (ICRAF / World Agroforestry); Kew World Checklist of Vascular Plants via GBIF: Santalum album L., native and introduced distribution; IUCN Red List: Arunkumar A.N., Dhyani A., Joshi G. (2019). Santalum album (Vulnerable), e.T31852A2807668; category read via GBIF species API; GBIF species API: vernacular names for Santalum album; ICFRE-IWST Sandalwood Information System: home page (more than 90% in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu; religious life); ICFRE-IWST Sandalwood Information System: Habitat (habitat, height, flowering twice a year from 3 years); ICFRE-IWST Sandalwood Information System: Silviculture (heartwood from about 10-13 years; oil highest in root)
This article was prepared with AI assistance and checked by the GreenEye team against the sources shown in each section.
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