Cananga odorata
(ylang-ylang)

Preferred Scientific Name

• Cananga odorata (Lam.) Hook. f. & Thomson

Preferred Common Name

• ylang-ylang

Other Scientific Names

• Canangium odoratum (Lam.) Baill. ex King
• Canangium scortechinii King
• Uvaria odorata Lam.

International Common Names

• English: cadmia; macassar oiltree; perfume tree; wooly-pine; ylang-ylang tree
• Spanish: cadmia; cananga
• French: canang odorant; ilang-ilang
• Chinese: xiao yi lan; yi lan; yuan bian zhong

Local Common Names

• : motoi
• Cambodia: chhke sreng
• Caroline Islands: lengileng
• China: yi lan
• Cook Islands: mata'oi; mato'oi; moto'oi
• Fiji: makasoi; makasui; makosoi; makosui; makusui
• French Polynesia: muto'i; mutui
• Germany: ylang-ylangbaum; Ylang-ylang-Baum
• Honduras: Ilán-ilán
• India: apurvachampaka; chettu sampangi; karumugai
• Indonesia: kenanga ; kernanga; sepalen
• Indonesia/Java: kananga; kananga wangoa
• Indonesia/Moluccas: lomulihano
• Indonesia/Nusa Tenggara: bunga kaeik; kananga; sandat; sandat kananga; sandat wangsa; tenaga
• Indonesia/Sulawesi: amok; kananga; lalingiran; raringidan; wonggulita
• Indonesia/Sumatra: kenanga
• Japan: iraniran
• Malaysia: chenanga ; kenanga ; kenanga utan; ylang-ylang
• Marshall Islands: ilanlan
• Micronesia: pwalang; pwanang; pwuur
• Micronesia/Pohnpei: pur-n-wai; pwurenwai; sair-n-wai; seiren wai; seirin wai
• Myanmar: kadapgnam; kadatngan; kadat-ngan; kadatnyan; sagasein; saga-sein
• Nauru: derangerang; derangirang
• Nicaragua: flor de Ilán
• Niue: motoi; motooi
• Palau: chirang; chirang; chirang; irang; irang
• Philippines: alangilang
• Portugal: cananga
• Puerto Rico: alang ilang; alingilang; Ilanilan
• Samoa: moso‘oi
• Solomon Islands: sa‘o sa‘o
• Thailand: kradangnga-songkhla ; kradangnga-thai; kradangnga-thai; sabannga-ton
• Tonga: mohokoi
• USA/Hawaii: lanalana
• Vietnam: ho[af]ng lan; ng[oj]c lan t[aa]y
• Wallis and Futuna Islands: mosokoi

EPPO code

• CANOD (Cananga odorata)

Trade name

• ilang-ilang
• kenanga wood
• perfume tree
• sananga oil
• ylang-ylang

• Domain: Eukaryota
•     Kingdom: Plantae
•         Phylum: Spermatophyta
•             Subphylum: Angiospermae
•                 Class: Dicotyledonae
•                     Order: Annonales
•                         Family: Annonaceae
•                             Genus: Cananga
•                                 Species: Cananga odorata

A genus consisting of two tree species native to the Old World tropics (Wagner and Lorence, 2014), Cananga is a member of the Annonaceae, or custard-apple, family. The genus name derives from the word ‘kananga’, the Malayan vernacular name for one of the species that produces fragrant essential oil in its flowers (Stearn, 1992). This oil-producing species is Cananga odorata is a cash crop that is both locally and commercially cultivated (FAO EcoCrop, 2014). Two groups of C. odorata are distinguished in commercial cultivation, cv group cananga, which yields cananga oil, and cv group ylang-ylang, which yields ylang-ylang oil (Yusuf and Sinohin, 1999). 

The following description is from Wagner and Lorence (2014) :

Tree reaching 15-20 m tall, trunk to 40 cm dbh, bark smooth, gray, branches spreading horizontally, new growth minutely puberulent, glabrate, branchlets brown, lenticellate. Leaves distichous, blade narrowly ovate to oblong-elliptic, (5-)10-22 cm long, 2.5-9 cm wide, chartaceous, dark green when fresh, oblong to lanceolate or elliptic, with 5-10 pairs of lateral veins, glabrous or glabrate above, hirtellous-strigulose especially along costa and veins beneath, apex acute to short acuminate, base rounded or obtuse. Flowers axillary or ramigerous on spur shoots, solitary or usually in loose, sometimes branched cymes of 4-20 flowers, fragrant when fresh, axes hirtellous, pedicels 30-40 mm long; sepals 3, 5-6 mm long, 4-5 mm wide, ovate, apex acute, both surfaces densely and finely puberulent; petals 6, 5-8 cm long, 0.3-0.8 cm wide, yellowish green, linear-oblong, somewhat narrowed at base, apex acute, long tapering, both surfaces finely hirtellous-strigulose; stamens numerous, 2 mm long, clavate with conical apiculate apex; gynoecium apocarpus with numerous, hirtellous carpels borne on flat receptacle surface. Carpels few to many per receptacle, on stipes 15-20 mm long, each fruit 1.5-2 cm long, 1.3-1.4 cm in diam., broadly ellipsoid to broadly obovoid, purple-black and juicy when ripe. Seeds 6-12, small, ovoid-discoid, pale brown.

The species is native to the Philippines and possibly other parts of Melanesia. It is speculated to have been introduced to most of the Pacific Islands either by migration of Polynesians in ancient times, or more recently by Europeans during the age of exploration, as is thought to be the case for Micronesia, Nauru and the Mariana Islands (Manner and Elevitch, 2006). Commercial cultivation of the species for its essential oils reportedly began in the Philippines and later in Indonesia. In 1770, the species was reportedly introduced from the Philippines to Reunion for cultivation, but commercial plantations were essentially decimated during World War I. The species was also brought to the Comoro Islands in the early 1900s and to Madagascar for the same purpose. Today the main producers of Cananga odorata are Guangdong province in China, Indonesia, the Comoro Islands, Java, Fiji and Madagascar (Yusuf and Sinohin, 1999). The species was introduced at some point in the past from the Philippines to Guam, where it is now naturalized (Stone, 1970).

Date of introduction to the West Indies is unknown but may have occurred relatively recently. The species was not listed in Macfadyen’s work on Jamaica in 1837, Bello’s work on Puerto Rico (1881; 1883), or Britton’s 1918 flora of Bermuda, but was present in Puerto Rico by 1924 as it was listed (as synonym Canangium odoratum in volume 5 of Britton and Wilson’s work on Puerto Rico (1923-1926), which reported the species as ‘commonly planted in Porto Rico and occasionally in the Virgin Islands’. Today the species has become persistent in Puerto Rico and is also cultivated (Liogier and Martorell, 2000).

Soil drainage

• free

Soil reaction

• acid
• alkaline
• neutral

Soil texture

• heavy
• light
• medium

Special soil tolerances

• infertile
• shallow

Natural Dispersal 

The species can reproduce by seed and can also propagate by cuttings. 

Vector Transmission (Biotic)

Cananga odorata is dispersed by birds, squirrels, bats and monkeys that eat its oily fruit (Yusuf and Sinohin, 1999; Flora de Nicaragua, 2014).

Accidental Introduction

The species is known to have accidentally escaped from cultivation and is now naturalized in many places where it is cultivated (Manner and Elevitch, 2006; Flora de Nicaragua, 2014; Flora Mesoamericana, 2014; PIER, 2014).

Intentional Introduction

It has been and continues to be intentionally and repeatedly introduced by humans as it is commercially grown for its flowers which produce fragrant essential oil (Manner and Elevitch, 2006; Flora de Nicaragua, 2014; Flora Mesoamericana, 2014; PIER, 2014). 

Although not currently considered to be a high risk invasive species, Cananga odorata is listed as invasive to many parts of the Pacific (PIER, 2014). It is considered weedy in Central Africa and Pohnpei (Randall, 2012), and ‘persistent’ in Puerto Rico (Liogier and Martorell, 2000). As it is pioneering in disturbed areas, a fast grower and can reach heights of up to 30 m tall, the species does possess invasive characteristics that could pose a negative environmental impact.

• Proved invasive outside its native range
• Abundant in its native range
• Tolerates, or benefits from, cultivation, browsing pressure, mutilation, fire etc
• Pioneering in disturbed areas
• Fast growing
• Gregarious
• Has propagules that can remain viable for more than one year

• Competition - shading

• Highly likely to be transported internationally deliberately

The species is commonly cultivated in tropical regions for its use as an ornamental roadside or garden tree, in food flavouring, as a timber source and for the essential oils which are extracted from its fully opened flowers (USDA-ARS, 2014). It is for the essential oils that the species is considered a good agroforestry species and was introduced to non-native places including Guam, Comoros Island, Reunion Island and Fiji (Manner and Elevitch, 2006; FAO EcoCrop, 2014). The flowers provide two essential oils, ylang-ylang oil, used in expensive perfumery and cananga oil, used in cheaper perfumes and for scenting soaps (FAO EcoCrop, 2014). Statistics from the late 1980s reported the world production of Cananga odorata oil to be an estimated $7 billion for ylang-ylang oil and $1.35 billion for cananga oil (Yusuf and Sinohin, 1999). 

Locally, the flowers of Cananga odorata are often used in traditional ceremonies, to adorn and scent hair, and as decorations in celebrations and festivals (Yusuf and Sinohin, 1999). The bark can be used to make coarse rope in Sulawesi but its wood is non-durable and mainly used to make boxes (Yusuf and Sinohin, 1999).

The species is also known to be sold and used for folk medicine. Medicinal uses include treatment of boils, as a carminative, for treatment of cephalgia, diarrhoea, gout, malaria, eye problems, rheumatism and as an emmenagogue (Duke, 2014).