Scientific Name : Cananga odorata (Lam.) Hook. f. & Thomson
Common Name : Ylang-ylang, Kenanga Hutan, Perfume Tree, Cananga, Kenanga Utan, Chenanga, Nyai
Chinese Name : 依蘭（依蘭香）、 香水樹、 依蘭依蘭
Family : ANACARDIACEAE
Local distribution status : Exotic species
| Origin | Native to northeastern Australia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia, also broadly cultivated in some provinces of China, including Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan and Yunnan. |
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| Meanings of Name | The generic name Cananga is a variation of Kenanga, the Malayan vernacular name for the genus. The name Cananga is also derived from a Tagalog name alang ilang, refers to the perfume produced from the fragrant flowers. Species name odorata means fragrant or sweet-scented. |
| Vitality | Cananga odorata grows well in well-drainage and moist soil, prefers a full-sun environment. |
| Application | Flowers of Cananga odorata induce strong fragrance, which often used as source of perfumes, soaps and cosmetics. It can also refined into luxurious fragrance oils, such as Ylang-ylang oil or Canadian balsam oil. Additionally, Ylang-ylang can be used for medicinal purposes; its dried flowers are used to treat malaria, and a paste made from crushed flowers can be used to treat asthma in Java and Vietnam. |
| Growing Habit | Evergreen tree. |
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| Height | To 20 m tall. |
| Stem | Bark pale grey. Striate with age, pubescent when young, glabrescent. |
| Leaves | Petiole narrowly grooved; leaf alternate, ovate, oblong, or broadly elliptic, membranous to thinly papery, green, often drying black, glabrous when mature except for mostly whitish pubescence along midvein and lateral veins, lateral veins 7-15 on each side, base rounded, obtuse, or truncate and often inequilateral, apex acute to acuminate. |
| Flower | Inflorescences axillary or on short woody branches, racemose or cymose, 1 or several flowered. Flowers pendulous. Pedicel pubescent, bracteolate. Sepals ovate, pubescent, connate at base, apex acute and reflexed. Petals turning from green to yellow and inside basally with a purplish brown blotch, linear to linear-lanceolate, tomentose and with several veins minutely pubescent. Stamens oblong-oblanceolate. |
| Fruit | Monocarp nearly black, ovoid, globose, or oblong, pulpy, glabrous. Seeds 2-12 per monocarp, pale brown, in 2 series, surface pitted. |
| Flowering Period | April to August in Hong Kong. |
| Fruiting Period | December to March in Hong Kong. |
Scientific name above is based on Hong Kong Herbarium website:
https://www.herbarium.gov.hk/en/hk-plant-database/plant-detail/index.html?pType=species&oID=3731
Scientific Names from Other Databases
―Flora of China: Cananga odorata var. odorata
―GBIF: Cananga odorata (Lam.) Hook.f. & Thomson