Injecting the "veins" of trees with poison to produce the most expensive types of agarwood
In our minds, intravenous therapy is associated with the treatment of diseases in humans, but another use of the "intravenous drip" of trees results in the most expensive types of wood in the world by injecting trees with poison.
Recently, especially in China, circulating pictures of trees hung unusually large bags filled with liquid.
Some thought it was an art installation designed to raise awareness about deforestation happening on a global scale or about human pollution killing plant life, while some claimed it was a real treatment designed to save trees from fungi or other parasites.
The details of the circulating photos are back to what the "Road Observation Academy" group posted on Facebook, showing dozens of large IV bags hanging on tree branches with green tubes with large needles embedded in tree trunks.
The liquid inside the bags is a "poison" designed to activate the tree's self-defense mechanisms, resulting in the world's most expensive wood known as "kiara" in Asia.
It is a very rare type of agarwood used in the perfume and incense industries for its distinctive and very strong aroma.
Remarkably, the tree's indoor wood is relatively odorless, but under certain conditions, the tree produces a type of dark resin, a viscous organic compound, that yields the precious agarwood.
Hundreds of years ago, humans have known that these trees only produce kiara agarwood in response to some type of stress, but it was recently identified as a type of mold.
Trees can be deliberately infected with this parasite to stimulate the production of the precious resin.
Agarwood plantations are now found throughout Asia, from Indonesia to Myanmar and Vietnam.
Although agarwood is not the most expensive at all, like wild agarwood can be hundreds of years old, it is still one of the most expensive materials in the world.
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