Ha! That is so true.
In fact, even my MOST expert hunters don't even know the actual names of the species they harvested.
I remember how they'd explain it to me, whenever we'd hit a different sort of terrain. I, trying to determine the species in trying to determine what the aroma + distillation techniques would thus be, would ask 'Candan?' Or 'Gaharu?' And the answer would just be a grunt 'Nnhhh!' with an arm gesture - either looking like choking an invisible neck to indicate a skinny tree (Candan) or hugging an elephant (Gaharu).
Or sometimes making diamond shapes of different sizes with their two hands, indicating the leaf size.
The truth of the matter is that we ourselves have encountered SO many differences within a matter of just a few hundred feet that's it's impossible to know the species for sure.
My gut feeling, and I could be wrong is that there are SO many sub-species that it's almost impossible to state a scientific name with 100% certainty. There must be a ton of cross-breeding going on.
Cases in point:
1) I've seen trees that pretty much look exactly like Microcarpa and yet don't smell exactly like they 'should'
2) I've seen a tree whose oud, ie aromatic good stuff, started right at the bark layer -- whereas typically it would/should start a couple inches inside the tree.
3) I've come across 'Walla Patta' wood which has as much in common with standard WP as Borneo gaharu has with Borneo candan.
Now having said that, classifying woods into species definitely helps. It not only allows customers to somewhat 'know' what to expect from an oil, but it also helps in designing the distillation and coming up with certain parameter standards.
For example: trees that trigger a grunt + 'large' gesture in Malaysia have a comparatively softer resin. Trees that trigger a grunt + 'small' gesture have a comparatively hard and brittle resin + extremely tough wood fibres.
The two require very different distillation parameters.
In Malaysia, the simplic big (gaharu) vs small (candan) classification is not only the most common but in fact it's sufficient for determining the most significant distillation parameters. Any other tweaks can be implemented on the go, after the distillation has already commenced (eg by checking the hydrosol).
Here's what's interesting though... the scientific classification of north Malaysian (eg Kelantan) 'big' trees is actually NOT malaccensis, it's something else. And yet the trees are called gaharu. And their leaves and fruits look exactly the same as south Malaysian (eg Johor) malaccensis.
Likewise, in Sarawak, there are two different species that can be classified as Candan, size-wise as well as leaf-wise.. and yet.. one we commonly call Microcarpa and the other Hirta. They look almost the same and yet the aroma difference is
huge. Sometimes the visual difference will be prominent enough to assume a different species (eg leaves are fuzzy = high altitude Candan, vs rubbery translucent valley vs smooth opaque hill Candan) and yet the aroma is identical.
The moral of the story is...
There are probably more of Napolean Dynamite's ligers roaming around, than lions and tigers.
In plantations however, you can expect very specific (and exact) special identification. Because the leaves, seeds etc were examined by scientists and identified, and then propagated in the farm.
In the wild, it's very different. Definitely lots of ligers!
