Pterocarpus Santalinus

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Pterocarpus santalinus (Red Sanders or Red Sandalwood; Rakta chandana) is a species of Pterocarpus native to India. It is only found in south India in Kadapa and Chittoor on the Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh border. It is a light-demanding small tree growing to 8 m tall with a trunk 50-150 cm diameter. It is fast-growing when young, reaching 5 m tall in three years even on degraded soils. It is not frost tolerant, being killed by temperatures of 1 C. The leaves are alternate, 3-9 cm long, trifoliate with three leaflets. The flowers are produced in short racemes. The fruit is a pod 6-9 cm long containing one or two seeds. The wood has historically been valued in China, particularly during the Ming and Qing periods, referred to in Chinese as zitan and spelt tzu-t'an by earlier western authors such Gustav Ecke, who introduced classical Chinese furniture to the west.