Botanical science has recorded about eighty species in this genus, growing widely across the regions of Malesia, the western Pacific ocean, Australia and south & southeastern Asia; centred on the tropics between the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
They grow naturally in New Guinea, eastern and northern Australia, New Caledonia, Fiji, SE Asia, southern China, the Indian subcontinent, the Philippines, Taiwan, and in the western Pacific Ocean their most easterly occurrences, in the Caroline Islands, New Zealand and Niue.[1][2][3]
The etymology of its name Dysoxylum derives from the Greek word ‘Dys’ meaning "bad" referring to "ill-smelling" and ‘Xylon’ meaning "wood".[4][5]
New Guinea has records of twenty eight species growing naturally, sixteen of them endemic.[1]New Caledonia has recorded nine, eight of them endemic.[1]Fiji has recorded nine, seven of them endemic.[1]In northern and eastern coastal regions of Australia fifteen recorded species grow naturally, known as "rosewoods", though they are not closely related to the true rosewoods (Dalbergia) which are legumes.[3]
In Australia, Dysoxylum fraserianum is the original rose wood. The name rosewood was given for the odour of its freshly cut bark like a fragrance of roses.[5] The species was named ‘fraserianum’ after Charles Fraser, the first colonial botanist of New South Wales. Fourteen more species are reported in Australia, distributed from within New South Wales, north through the humid east coast regions to the diversity of species in the wet tropics rainforests region of northeastern Queensland, on to Cape York Peninsula, northern parts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia.[3][5]
New Zealand has one endemic species D. spectabile, while Niue (island), further east at the global eastern limit of records of the genus, has a single species, the widespread (non-endemic) D. mollissimum subsp molle.[1]On the remote oceanic islands within Australia's territorial waters, Lord Howe Island has one endemic species D. pachyphyllum; Norfolk Island shares the restricted, but not locally endemic, D. bijugum with New Caledonia and Fiji; and Christmas Island shares a single widespread species D. gaudichaudianum with Australia, Malesia and SE Asia.[1]