Aquilaria Tree: The Tree Behind Agarwood, Wild and Plantation

An Aquilaria tree is an evergreen tree of the family Thymelaeaceae, and the main source of agarwood. Botanists recognise about twenty species in the genus. Wild trees grow across South and Southeast Asia, from the Himalayan foothills to New Guinea.^{(Hishamuddin 2020)}

However, a healthy Aquilaria tree does not contain agarwood. Its wood is pale, soft and light, with almost no smell. Agarwood forms only after the tree takes a wound. Then the Aquilaria tree lays down a dark, fragrant resin around the damage as a defence.^{(Wang 2021)} The resin-soaked wood is what the world calls agarwood, oud, aloeswood or gaharu.

So an agarwood bead is the part of an Aquilaria tree which fought back. Our parent company, AgarwoodTown, has sourced the wood since 2014, and Oudbracelet is its retail shop.

According to Hishamuddin et al. (2020), the genus Aquilaria has about 21 species.^{(Hishamuddin 2020)} First, the IUCN lists 4 as critically endangered and 9 as vulnerable, so 62% of the genus faces some threat. Then CITES covers the whole genus in Appendix II. Finally, our data lists 168 agarwood styles, or 92% of the 182 on this site, and every one uses plantation-grown wood.

An ordinary Aquilaria tree is a slim evergreen with smooth pale bark and glossy leaves. Nothing about the tree looks precious.

Cut a healthy Aquilaria tree, and the wood is pale yellow-white. The wood floats easily and smells of little more than fresh sap. So the value lies not in the trunk itself, but in what the trunk can become.

Also, not every Aquilaria tree becomes agarwood. In the wild, many trees never take the kind of wound which triggers resin. Others take a wound but produce only a thin dark streak. Agarwood forms only as a wound response, according to a 2021 review by Wang and colleagues.^{(Wang 2021)} For example, a wild tree felled in the hope of agarwood may hold almost none. Finally, the uncertainty is the root of agarwood’s price, and of the damage wild harvest has done.

Agarwood is a defence response. When lightning, a broken branch, boring insects or a fungus opens the wood, the Aquilaria tree reacts. The tree produces aromatic compounds and packs the compounds into the wood around the injury, according to Wang and colleagues.^{(Wang 2021)} Over time, that wood turns dark, heavy and fragrant.

The process is slow. Researchers describe resin building up over months to years, and the amount varies widely from tree to tree. So two pieces from the same Aquilaria tree can differ in colour, weight and scent. For example, our data uses a density band of 0.6–0.95 g/cm³, so the densest wood weighs 58% more than the lightest. A 10 mm strand of 20 beads can therefore weigh anywhere from 5.9 to 9.4 g.

Then comes the careful part. In step 4 of the process below, workers split the resinous wood from the pale wood around it, often with small hand tools. Only the dark, resin-rich part becomes agarwood. The rest of the Aquilaria tree has little value as agarwood at all.

Wild agarwood is scarce, because only some wild trees hold agarwood and collectors have long cut many to find a few. As a result, wild populations fell sharply. Of about 21 Aquilaria species, 4 are critically endangered and 9 are vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, according to Hishamuddin and colleagues.^{(Hishamuddin 2020)} Thirteen of 21 species, or roughly 62%, now sit in a threatened category.

Every Aquilaria tree species therefore sits in CITES Appendix II.^(CITES) Appendix II is a permit system, not a ban, so exports stay within limits the wild population can bear. The closely related genus Gyrinops, which also yields agarwood, has the same listing.

For a buyer, the lesson is simple. Wild agarwood is scarce, hard to trace and under pressure. So we do not sell wild wood. For example, all 168 agarwood styles in our data come from a plantation Aquilaria tree.

A plantation Aquilaria tree is a cultivated tree which growers wound on purpose rather than waiting for chance. Methods include drilling or cutting the trunk, inserting chemicals which trigger a stress response, and inoculating the wood with fungi, according to a 2019 review by Tan and colleagues.^{(Tan 2019)}

One published method treats the whole Aquilaria tree at once, through a transfusion into the trunk. In cultivated Aquilaria sinensis, Liu and colleagues reported resin spreading far more widely through the wood than with local wounding.^{(Liu 2013)} In short, plantation agarwood is still real agarwood. The tree still makes the resin itself, only on a timetable people can plan.

Plantation wood also varies. For example, a young tree gives lighter, paler agarwood, and an older tree with a longer induction gives darker, denser wood. So “plantation” describes where the Aquilaria tree grew, not one fixed grade. In our data, 14 styles use pale wood and 4 use dark or purple-brown wood. We weigh each strand for the same reason, and show you the result.

A plantation Aquilaria tree is the traceable choice, while a wild tree is the scarce one. In practice, the difference shows up in the paperwork more than in the bead. For example, a seller of plantation wood can say where the tree grew and supply CITES documents. A seller of wild wood often cannot. Wild stock is also thin: 4 of 21 species, or 19%, rank as critically endangered.^{(Hishamuddin 2020)} In our data, all 168 agarwood styles sit in the right-hand column.

From seedling to finished bead, a plantation Aquilaria tree takes several years. In practice, step 3 is the longest wait, since resin builds for months to years after induction, according to Tan and colleagues.^{(Tan 2019)} Step 6 is the quickest. In our data, a 10 mm strand for a 16 cm wrist takes 20 beads, and the scale then shows its real weight.

The short answer is that the tree sets colour, weight, scent and price. Everything you notice in a strand starts in the tree. First, colour tracks resin: more resin, darker wood. Second, weight tracks resin too, because resin is denser than the plain wood. For example, a strand rich in resin can even sink, as our guide to sinking agarwood explains.

Third, scent comes from the resin, not from anything added. The main scent compounds are sesquiterpenes and chromones, according to Wang and colleagues.^{(Wang 2021)} So a warm hand brings the scent up, and a real strand keeps the scent for years. Our guide on whether agarwood beads smell covers what to expect.

Finally, the tree explains the price model. No two pieces of an Aquilaria tree hold the same resin. So we price agarwood by weight, and we show the scale on camera. In our data, 92 styles, or 51%, are pure agarwood bracelets and strands with nothing but plantation wood on the cord.

The Aquilaria tree is plain until something hurts the trunk. Then, over years, the tree turns the damage into one of the most prized scented materials in the world. Agarwood is the result: resin-soaked wood laid down as a defence, according to Wang and colleagues.^{(Wang 2021)} Wild trees paid a heavy price for agarwood, and plantations matter now for that reason.

So when you choose a strand, think of the tree behind the beads. First, ask where the tree grew. Second, ask to see the weight. Finally, ask to see the grain move in the light. For example, we answer all three for each of the 168 agarwood styles in our data, or 92% of the catalogue, because a plantation Aquilaria tree deserves an honest account.