Santalum freycinetianum Gaudich.
Lanai Sandalwood; Forest sandalwood; Freycinet sandalwood; Mountain Sandalwood
70 photographs › At a glance
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Summary
Santalum freycinetianum, the forest sandalwood, ʻIliahi, Lanai sandalwood, or Freycinet sandalwood, is a species of flowering tree in the family Santalaceae, that is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. Its binomial name commemorates Henri Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet, a 19th-century French explorer. ʻIliahi inhabits coastal mesic, mixed mesic, and wet forests on Oʻahu, at elevations of 400–650 m (1,310–2,130 ft). It grows in areas that receive 500–3,800 mm (20–150 in) of annual rainfall. Like other members of its genus, ʻiliahi is a root hemi-parasite, deriving some of its nutrients from the host plant; common hosts include koa (Acacia koa), koaiʻa (Acacia koaia), and ʻaʻaliʻi (Dodonaea viscosa).
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Santalum freycinetianum", CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the genus · Santalum
Santalum is a genus of woody flowering plants in the Santalaceae family, the best known and most commercially valuable of which is the Indian sandalwood tree, S. album. Members of the genus are trees or shrubs. Most are root parasites which photosynthesize their own food, but tap the roots of other species for water and inorganic nutrients. More on Wikipedia ›
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Santalum", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,462 mm of 1,932 mm) takes 8 months, October to April and July. Mean temperature moves 3.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
Rain
1,932 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,462 mm of it October to April and July. Wettest month December at 234 mm, driest month June at 95 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 907 mm to 3,167 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,941 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,932 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).
Warmth and air
Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 18.5 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 14.4 °C to 20.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.9 °C in August and September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 18.5 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 65 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 22 °C in Jan and Feb to 26 °C in Aug, Sep and Oct; mean nightly low from 19 °C in Jan, Feb, Mar and Apr to 22 °C in Jul, Aug, Sep and Oct. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 4 months in a row that tie for it. 1,932 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 16 habitat cells. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 22 / 18–23 | 22 / 18–23 | 23 / 18–23 | 23 / 18–24 | 24 / 19–25 | 25 / 21–26 | 25 / 21–26 | 26 / 22–27 | 26 / 22–27 | 26 / 21–26 | 24 / 20–25 | 23 / 19–24 |
| Night °C | 19 / 15–21 | 19 / 14–21 | 19 / 15–21 | 19 / 15–21 | 20 / 16–22 | 21 / 17–23 | 22 / 18–23 | 22 / 18–24 | 22 / 18–24 | 22 / 18–24 | 21 / 17–23 | 20 / 16–22 |
| Rain mm | 202 / 120–296 | 154 / 86–248 | 209 / 108–320 | 153 / 62–259 | 124 / 51–222 | 95 / 42–171 | 129 / 58–241 | 129 / 51–246 | 122 / 53–210 | 167 / 78–274 | 214 / 111–345 | 234 / 141–348 |
| DLI | 27 / 25–29 | 32 / 30–33 | 36 / 35–38 | 41 / 39–43 | 43 / 42–46 | 44 / 43–47 | 43 / 43–46 | 42 / 41–45 | 40 / 38–41 | 34 / 32–36 | 28 / 26–30 | 25 / 23–27 |
| RH % | 66 / 61–69 | 66 / 60–68 | 66 / 61–69 | 67 / 61–69 | 66 / 61–69 | 66 / 61–68 | 67 / 62–69 | 66 / 62–69 | 65 / 62–68 | 66 / 62–69 | 67 / 62–69 | 66 / 61–69 |
The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 48% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 15.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.4 °C.
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Brynn Fricke, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Freycinetia arborea 'Ie'ie Photo: CC0, author not stated
Dianella sandwicensis Asphodelaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Scaevola gaudichaudiana Mountain naupaka Photo: CC0, author not stated
Notelaea sandwicensis Oleaceae Photo: CC BY, Forest & Kim Starr Huperzia phyllantha Lycopodiaceae Dennstaedtia setosa Dennstaedtiaceae Other Santalum 6 in the reference
Santalum acuminatum Sweet quandong Photo: CC BY, jaimshae
Santalum album Indian sandalwood Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya
Santalum austrocaledonicum Coral Sea Sandalwood Photo: CC BY, Neal Kelso
Santalum ellipticum Coastal sandalwood Photo: CC0, author not stated
Santalum lanceolatum Plumbush Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg Tasney
Santalum spicatum West Australian sandalwood Photo: CC BY, Malcolm Simard Names & registers
Also known as Santalum freycinetianum var. freycinetianum; Santalum freycinetianum var. longifolium; Santalum longifolium. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 3 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (3 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 21.50_-158.125, lapse-corrected +269 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (48% land), so no cold floor is shownwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 17 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.