Aquilaria Species Guide: Sinensis, Malaccensis, Crassna, Subintegra and Gyrinops Compared

Aquilaria species are the trees that produce most of the world's agarwood. The genus belongs to the family Thymelaeaceae and holds around twenty accepted species, native from northeast India across Southeast Asia to southern China and New Guinea.^[1]

The numbers explain the price. According to Liu et al. (2013), only about 10% of Aquilaria trees produce agarwood without human help, so most supply today comes from induced, cultivated trees.^[7]

Not every species matters to the trade. A handful form resin readily, grow where agarwood has a long tradition, or have been planted in large numbers. Therefore, most commercial oud you will meet traces back to five names.

However, species is only half the story. A healthy Aquilaria tree holds almost no scent. Oud forms only where the tree has been wounded and has filled the damaged wood with resin.

So species sets the starting chemistry, while wounding, time and processing decide what reaches your warehouse. Keep both in mind when you read a supplier's description.

Aquilaria and Gyrinops: Two Genera, One Product

Gyrinops is a smaller, closely related genus in the same family. Its species grow mainly in eastern Indonesia, New Guinea and Sri Lanka, and they also form resinous wood that the trade sells as agarwood or gaharu.^[2]

Commercially, the two genera travel together. CITES lists both, Indonesian traders sell both, and a lab report on the resin shows the same broad compound families. In practice, the genus matters most when a permit or invoice has to name the source correctly.

One naming trap is worth knowing early. Older texts call the tree of northeast India Aquilaria agallocha. Botanists now treat that name as a synonym of A. malaccensis, so documents using either name usually describe the same species.^[3]

Identifying Species: From Leaves to DNA

Botanists separate Aquilaria species by leaves, flowers and fruit, but the differences can be small. That is why research groups increasingly use DNA barcodes, such as the matK gene region, to confirm a species.

For a buyer, the practical step is simpler: the CITES permit must name the species, and a reputable supplier should be able to say how that was confirmed. Our guide on how to identify an agarwood tree covers the field checks.

Each commercial species has a home range, and most of the trade's regional names follow those ranges. However, plantations now carry several species well beyond their native areas, so geography alone no longer proves species.

Aquilaria sinensis — Southern China

Aquilaria sinensis is the main agarwood species native to China. It grows in the hills and lowlands of Guangdong, Hainan, Guangxi and Fujian, and Chinese buyers know its resinous wood as chén xiāng.^[1]

It is also our species. Our 100+ mu plantation in Guan Zhu Town, Dian Bai District, Maoming, sits inside its native range, and we inoculate our own trees artificially. In addition, we work with more than 100 contracted plantation farmers.

Hainan agarwood is the same tree. Its reputation comes from place, history and old wild stock, not from a separate species. Therefore a buyer who wants "Hainan" quality is really asking about origin and resin age.

Aquilaria malaccensis — India to the Malay World

Aquilaria malaccensis has the widest range of the commercial species. It runs from Assam and Bangladesh through Myanmar and Thailand to Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and the Philippines.^[3]

This is the species behind the "Hindi" oud that Gulf buyers prize, and behind much of the Malaysian and Indonesian gaharu trade. It was also the first Aquilaria species to be listed by CITES, after decades of heavy wild harvesting.

For the Malay and Indonesian side of this story, see our gaharu guide for the Malay and Indonesian trade. We do not repeat its grade names here.

Aquilaria crassna — Mainland Southeast Asia

Aquilaria crassna grows in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.^[1] It supplies most of the oil sold as Cambodian, Lao or Vietnamese oud, and much of Vietnam's carving and kynam trade.

Moreover, crassna is now one of the most widely planted species in the region. If you are weighing it against our stock, our article on how Cambodian crassna oil compares with Chinese sinensis covers the oil side in detail.

Aquilaria subintegra — Thailand

Aquilaria subintegra is native to Thailand. It is less famous than crassna, yet it has become a familiar plantation species in Thailand and Malaysia, and some distillers sell its oil under the species name itself.

Published documentation on subintegra is thinner than on the three big species. Consequently, buyers should lean on samples and supplier records rather than on general descriptions.

Gyrinops Species — Eastern Indonesia, New Guinea and Sri Lanka

The Gyrinops genus covers a small group of species. G. versteegii is the best known in Indonesian trade, while G. walla grows in Sri Lanka.^[2]

Gyrinops wood usually reaches buyers as gaharu from the eastern Indonesian islands and Papua. Although it forms resin by the same defence response, lots vary widely between islands, so a sample matters even more here.

Species gives each oud a recognisable family resemblance, but it never acts alone. Broadly, the trade describes sinensis as sweet and cool, crassna as fruity, Indian malaccensis as deep and animalic, and Gyrinops as lighter.

Chemistry explains part of the pattern. Analyses of agarwood from different Aquilaria species report the same main compound families — sesquiterpenes and 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromones — in different proportions and with different minor constituents.^[4]

The table below uses common trade language, not lab standards. For a fuller vocabulary of oud notes, our guide to describing what oud smells like goes deeper.

Species vs Processing: Which Matters More?

In most purchases, processing and grade outweigh species. On our own grading table, sinensis from different blocks and resin ages already spans a wide range, from light D-grade wood to dense AAA pieces.

Four factors usually move the scent more than the tree does:

• Resin content. Our internal scale runs D, C, B, A and AAA, with Kynam above it on allocation only. A grade jump changes depth and length far more than a species swap.
• Resin age. Older resin zones smell rounder; young induced resin tends to read brighter and thinner.
• Extraction route. Hydro-distillation and supercritical CO₂ pull different fractions from the same wood. Our hydro-distilled oud oil starts at $7.00/g, while our CO₂ agarwood oil starts at $1.50/g, both with a 10 g MOQ.
• Soaking and fermentation. Long pre-distillation soaking, common in Indian practice, adds much of the animal character buyers link to "Hindi" oud.

Therefore, if you need "a crassna-style oil", describe the target profile to your supplier first. Species alone will not tell you whether a given lot fits your formula.

Four Aquilaria species and at least one Gyrinops species are now planted at commercial scale. The main ones are sinensis in China, crassna in mainland Southeast Asia, malaccensis from northeast India to Indonesia, and subintegra in Thailand and Malaysia.

Cultivation grew because wild supply could not keep up. Collectors had felled many wild trees to find the few that held resin, and wild Aquilaria populations declined across their range. Growers then learned to induce resin in planted trees on purpose.^[5]

Plantation Countries by Species

• China: A. sinensis, mainly in Guangdong, Hainan and Guangxi. Dian Bai and the wider Maoming area form one of the long-established growing districts.
• Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand: mainly A. crassna, with A. subintegra also common in Thailand.
• Northeast India and Bangladesh: A. malaccensis, often grown around homesteads and small holdings as well as in larger blocks.
• Malaysia and Indonesia: A. malaccensis and A. subintegra, plus Gyrinops versteegii in eastern Indonesia.

Plantation areas also exist outside Asia's native ranges. However, the volumes that reach wholesale buyers still come overwhelmingly from these countries.

Why Plantations Changed the Supply

Cultivated trees made agarwood plannable. A grower knows the species, the planting year and the induction date of each block, which a wild collector never could.^[5]

The induction method then decides much of the outcome. Drilling, chemical inducers, fungal inoculants and whole-tree infusion all produce resin, but at different speeds and patterns. Our separate guide to agarwood inoculation methods explains those trade-offs.

For growers choosing what to plant, species choice usually follows climate and local market. Our article on Aquilaria cultivars and seedling selection covers that decision. We sell Aquilaria sinensis seedlings for new plantations at $15 per plant, MOQ 10, shipped with a phytosanitary certificate.

CITES covers every Aquilaria species and every Gyrinops species. Both genera are listed in Appendix II, so international trade in their wood, oil and many products needs permits showing legal and sustainable origin.^[6]

• History: A. malaccensis was listed first. The listing was extended to all Aquilaria and Gyrinops species in 2004, partly because traders and customs officers could not reliably tell the species apart.
• Plantation wood is still covered: cultivated origin does not take material out of Appendix II. Instead, the permit records the source, so plantation stock is documented differently from wild stock.
• The species must match: the permit names the species. If your invoice says crassna and the permit says sinensis, expect questions at import.
• Annotation #14: the listing exempts some finished, retail-packaged products. Check the current annotation text before you plan a shipment.
• Our shipments: every wholesale order ships with a grading note and a CITES Appendix II export permit where required. Plants also travel with a phytosanitary certificate.

Importing countries may add their own layer; the EU, for instance, applies CITES through its own wildlife trade regulation. For the full paperwork sequence, read our step-by-step CITES agarwood permit walkthrough.