Acacia pennata (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Acacia pennata (L.) Willd.

Protologue: Sp. pl. 4: 1090 (1806).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: areuy garut (Sundanese), ri got, rembete (Javanese)
• Cambodia: thmâ: roëb’
• Laos: ‘han, ‘han ‘kha:w (Louang Prabang)
• Thailand: nam khi raet (south-western), cha om (central, peninsular), phakla (northern)
• Vietnam: dọc tăng (Binh Tri Thiên), móc mèo (Bac Thai), dây sống rắn.

Distribution

India, Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China, Thailand, Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands and south-western Sulawesi.

Uses

A. pennata has been used in Laos against anaemia. In India, a decoction of young leaves is taken to treat body pain, headache and fever, and a decoction of the roots is applied against rheumatism and cough. The bark is used in India as a substitute for soap, and for tanning fishing nets and to produce reddish-brown leather with a stiff, somewhat harsh structure. A. pennata is sometimes cultivated in hedges in Thailand, and the leaves are occasionally used as a vegetable.

Observations

A scandent shrub or liana; leaflets chartaceous, lateral veins of leaflets not forming a reticulate pattern beneath, glands on petiole and rachis circular to broadly elliptical or patelliform; flower glomerules 6-8 mm in diameter; pod oblong, (6.5-)9-15.5 cm × 1.5-2.5 cm. A. pennata is found in the drier parts of Malesia in monsoon forest and scrub vegetation, up to 1200 m altitude.

Selected sources

121, 182, 237, 247, 249, 250, 334, 512.

Main genus page

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Authors

S. Aggarwal