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Welcome

Welcome to Plants of East Nusa Tenggara blog. East Nusa Tenggara is the southeasternmost province of Indonesia. Located close to Australia, it is the province most affected by the dry southeasterly wind blowing from the continent during the April-October dry season. Being so, the vegetation of this archipelagic province is unique. Nevertheless, little is known about plants in this province. This blog tries to provide information about plants from this archipelagic dryland province. Contributions from visitors are welcome, please contact pr4.undana@gmail.com

Kamis, 01 Januari 2015

White Sandal: The Iconic Flora of East Nusa Tenggara Province

Print Friendly and PDF White sandal (Santalum album) is the iconic flora of the province of East Nusa Tenggara. The first government funded university in the province, Nusa Cendana University, bears the name of this tree plant in Bahasa Indonesia, cendana. It is an endemic plant of the province and other nearby islands, but for so long has been wrongly believed as native to the Indian sub-continent and hence named indian sandal. A recent study revealed that white sandal was transported to Indian sub-continent as an important part of major prehistoric translocations of economic plants from Southeast Asia. Another study established East Nusa Tenggara and other nearby islands as the center of origin of this plant.