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Guaiacum sanctum, commonly known as holywood or holywood lignum-vitae, is a species of flowering plant in the creosote bush family, Zygophyllaceae. It ranges from southern Florida in the United States and the Bahamas south to Central America and the Greater Antilles. It is threatened by habitat loss.

Guaiacum sanctum is the national tree of the Bahamas.

Properties
This small tree is slow growing, reaching about 7 m in height with a trunk diameter of 50 cm. The tree is essentially evergreen throughout most of its native range. It is shade tolerant. It fruits between the age for 30 and 70 years over the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere.

The wood is hard, heavy and self-lubricating and has a Janka Hardness Score of 4500, which is one of the hardest in the world. It can sink when placed in water. There are fine ripple marks on the wood.

Leaves
The leaves are compound, 2.5 - 3 cm in length, and 2 cm wide. They are dark green in color and occur as three to five pairs of leaflets. They fold together during the hottest parts of the day.

Flower
The purplish blue flowers have five petals each. They can grow individually or in clusters at the ends of branches. The flowers have both male and female parts (stamens and pistils) and yield yellow pods containing black seeds encapsulated separately in a red skin.

Uses
This tree is one of two species which yield the valuable Lignum vitae wood, the other being Guaiacum officinale.

The wood has been used for making specific parts of ships that needed to be self-lubricating so that they would last longer.

The tree is considered to have medicinal value, used mostly for home remedies, though it had also been used to treat Syphilis. The bark can be steeped to create tonics.

It is also used as an ornamental plant.

Threats
The type of rainforest (tropical-deciduous and dry forests) that holywood is found in are the most threatened ecosystems in the world.

The plant was exploited till it was endangered due to use for timber and medical resin. Deforestation also occured to create more human managed areas like farmland, cities, etc. This has caused habitat fragmentation for the species, which reduces the chances of lowering its risk status. Moreover, since this is a slow growing tree, it becomes harder to regrow and maintain sizable forests of it. It can be cultivated to grow faster, but needs to be watered regularly and to have well drained soil.

It has no major pests and though there were cases of illegal trade in 2008, this is no longer a major threat to the species.