The plants of middle earth

[Alfirin]

Sorry to ressurect this truly Ancient thread again. But a thought just ocurred to me, I think I may have finally figured out a candidate for Yavannamire (albiet one that Tolkein would never have though of). The genus Santalum divides into two major branches. On one side are the Indian Santalums which tend to have fragrant leaves bark and wood, of which the most famous is Santalum album (sandalwood). On the other are the Australian Santalums which often have large and tasty fruit (which is red), of which the most familiar would be Santalum acuminatum (Quandong). It occurs to me that, if you imagined a tree that was in the middle of these two (so that it had the fragrance qualities of the Indian Branch of the Genus, and the fruit qualities of the Australian) and added on a few common to 1st age middle earth tree traits, like enhanced height (sandalwoods in our world are really more of shrubs than trees and when they are trees are pretty short) and a fertility in Erresea and Nisimaldar that allowed them to live independantly (real sandalwoods are actually parasite trees) youd get something pretty close to Yavannamire.